88 AX ANGLER'S REMINISCENCES. 



I doubt if there is any other extant or will ever be taken again, for these chronicles 

 which I am writing are those of a private river and not of a club holding. While 

 Gilmour lived, none but invited guests ever came, and of these only three to five at 

 a time, for the Godbout was reckoned as only a three-rod river, that is, it afforded 

 a complement of fishing for only that many anglers, although there were no less 

 than fourteen pools all told. And now that the proprietor is dead, who knows what 

 changes and chances may betide? 



Up river as seen from the "Cruiser's" deck, the vista opens most charmingly, 

 disclosing an expansive amphitheatre inclosed by terraced hills clad with forests of 

 spruce, with the river winding through and spreading out its shallows which are 

 divided by pretty wooded islands. A zig-zag path climbs to the summit of the left 

 promontory, where a flagstaff sixty feet high is planted, and a rustic summer house 

 affords rest and shade. Looking seaward from this point of vantage, which is a 

 conspicuous landmark to navigators fifteen miles away, there is an unbroken waste 

 of water as far as the eye can reach, with here and there a vessel in the offing ; and 

 in the foreground great combers of "surf" roll in and chase each other over the 

 sandy flats. 



Multitudes of sea fowl hover over the landwash picking upon flotsam. On many 

 of the higher elevations, landward, patches of snow can be seen, for June on the 

 Godbout is no farther advanced than April in Montreal. The five cottages and all 

 the outbuildings of the camp are in full view with half a dozen Castle-Connell cots 

 or punts, aligned upon the beach in front. The largest of the cottages has a tower, 

 with a chamber in the second story and a sky parlor in the third. On the ground 

 floor are three chambers, a dining room and three bath rooms. Close by, the kitchen, 

 ice house, fish house, etc. When the lord-proprietor arrives the Union Jack is 

 hoisted on the tower, and at the close of the season it is housed again until the next 

 rolls round. To the gaffers and the denizens of the Nascoupie village at the anchor- 

 age below, it is the prime event of the year. Earthquakes and eclipses are nothing 

 to it. Such a larder and luxurious appointments as the camp possesses, few anglers 

 have ever seen ; nor such an equipment of rods, reels, lines, flies, gaffs, wading 

 stockings, weighing scales, score books and slates, face protectors, fly oil and the 

 like. When summer finally breaks in, it usually does by the middle of June, the 

 blackflies are "the very devil," and nothing in nature so much tries the angler's 

 temper and patience. Can the mere novice imagine a person standing helpless for 

 forty minutes, with both hands holding the rod, while he kills his fish, and the un- 

 conscionable insects attacking him on every exposed part of the body? No writer 

 ever did justice to the dilemma. 



Gilmour used to say that there were no rivers in Scotland like the Godbout for 

 "wickedness," and he always enjoyed testing the mettle of strangers. Killing and 

 securing a salmon in a quiet stream is quite a different performance from bringing 

 one to gaff in an impetuous rives like the Godbout, for there the labor is excessive, 

 and the utmost tact is often required to save a fish. From its source to its mouth 

 it is a turbulent stream, tumbling and careering through gloomy mountain gorges 

 with a continuous pitch, and piling itself into billows of foam against huge holders 

 which obstruct its tortuous channels. It seems a marvel how the salmon can ever 

 work their way to their spawning grounds in the upper stream. 



The limits of the fishing is at what is called the "Upper Pool," where the long 

 pent waters rush downward through a rock cut sixty feet deep with an impetuous 

 discharge and spread out into a broad basin just under the shadow of an inpinging 

 mountain. After whirling for a while in an inky eddy flecked with bubbles and 



