RANDOM CASTS IX THE LAND OF LAKES. 63 



bass. Meanwhile their unsuspecting comrades foraged for sweets among the 

 coronals and petals of the delicious lilies, and sauntered under the umbrages of the 

 wax-like calices and waltzed about the shiny floors of the broadening leaves, destined, 

 possibly, to pass off next into the abyss of fate. 



It was at the first flush of the long stimmer twilight which lingers far into the 

 night of the northern sky, and all of our prospecting party were tired with an 

 unwonted tramp, for they had not yet become hardened to the average of thirty 

 miles per diem (which afterward became their regulation march). An early bed 

 offered greater attractions than angling. No one had contemplated trying his luck 

 until the next morning, and quite likely the most interested of the party would have 

 continued to loll on the grass in camp and listlessly w r atch the intermittent plashes 

 of the fish around the lake, had not the already heightened interest been enhanced 

 and intensified by the shadowy apparition of the pioneer settler creeping through 

 the brush toward the water. 



He held in his hard-fisted grip a ponderous wattle, with the tip projecting for- 

 ward as he strode, and when he reached the margin of the water he waded boldly 

 in among the pads up to his middle and lifting the pole with both hands slung it 

 first backward over his shoulder and then forward toward the water with a mighty 

 ''swish!" Some large object gleamed momentarily from the end of the transitory 

 radius which his heavy line described, and cutting an impalpable perimeter in the 

 air, came down upon the boscm of the lake kerswash just outside the pads-! It 

 was a whole frog which he had on for bait, and its dangling legs were tremendous 

 to behold The astonished spray which the blow threw up had barely time to 

 reflect the crimson of the glowing west ere there was a great commotion in the 

 water and a struggle for the pole ; but presently, with one mighty heave, the doughty 

 fisherman bent his inborn force and high in air another object sped brushward, 

 and like a collapsed meteor fell with a sickening thud into the woods behind, far 

 out of sight. A protracted investigation discovered a three-pound bass, "big-mouth" 

 variety, and no mistake, for the whole frog was in it! This same unmutilated frog 

 answered for a second fish, and as promptly a second fish answered to the bait. 



A repetition of this extraordinary achievement stirred the latent enthusiasm 

 within my own breast and kindled the fire of the ardent angler. My tired limbs 

 forgot their fatigue, but my hands and genius had not forgotten their cunning. 

 Hastily rumaging through my camp kit I found a trolling spoon and line, and 

 rushing down to the canoe I jumped into it and shoved out into the lake. The 

 wind was. blowing briskly off shore, so laying aside the paddle I let her drift 

 across and paid out line as she went. The dugout was so narrow that I could not 

 sit in it squarely ; but lying sideways on my hip I did the best I could, and presently 

 got a thumping strike. My position was so awkward that I couldn't half see 

 behind. I couldn't see my fish unless the boat was moving sideways, but I managed 

 to haul in by a sort of hand- over-shoulder maneuver, and finally got him into the 

 boat. I managed to get three fish in going once across the lake, and as the supply 

 was ample for our breakfast 1 left the canoe on the lee shore and walked back to 

 camp. 



Those were the first bass I ever caught in my life, and the sensation was over- 

 powering. I don't know if Big Lake still keeps up its reputation as a fishing 

 resort, but it' fairly swarmed with black bass in those days, and I envy the old 

 pioneer the sport which he might have had if he had only known how to make the 

 most of it. 



June, 1882. 



