A JUNE RISE OX THE GODBOUT. 89 



foam, it jams itself against a confronting cliff, and then dashes off again as im- 

 petuously as before, though in a broader and more shallow channel. Below, the 

 shores are nearly vertical all the way, fringed with trees. The bed is choked with 

 boulders, and the air is damp with the spray which rises from the churning waters. 

 It is whiteness all the way to the camp, save where temporary pauses are made at the 

 pools, which I dare say are most acceptable and necessary halting places for the 

 salmon in the tedious ascent. Following the bank of the river a path has been con- 

 structed through the woods with much difficulty and expense, so as to communicate 

 with the pools which would otherwise have been inaccessible. Trees have been 

 chopped away and rocks blasted out, hewn logs stretched across chasms, hollows 

 filled up with stones and earth, hand rails placed where the brink is dizzy and the 

 footing precarious, jetties of stone built up around projecting cliffs which bar the 

 passage. Drinking cups are found at cold, wayside springs, which trickle down 

 the moss-grown rocks. At two of the pool's long ladders are laid over boulders in 

 the foaming mid stream in order to reach to points of vantage for casting. At other 

 pools punts are moored for special service there. At one place, halfway down the 

 stream, a crossing is effected by a rope ferry, which traverses the foot of an angry 

 rapid to a landing cut in the solid rock, whence an iron railing assists the ascent up 

 the bank. The expense of all these aids and improvements was great. Surely here 

 the luxury of salmon fishing must be enjoyed. And yet mishaps are numerous, and 

 once Milford, the Earl of Dufferin himself got a ducking at the "shea." It is a 

 "wicked" river. 



Rivers are gauged as I have intimated, according to their capacity to afford good 

 angling for a given number of rods. When a party is on a river, certain pools or 

 divisions are assigned to each rod day by day, and these pools are fished in rotation 

 so that all have equal chances. The run of salmon begins about the middle of June, 

 though a few fish sometimes arrive earlier. They come in detachments with each tide, 

 and an experienced hand can generally tell whether the arrival be large or small. 

 In the early part of the season the rivers are very high from the melting of the 

 snow, and back on the table lands, so that the lower pools afford good sport at low 

 tide, but as the flood gradually subsides and diminishes in volume the lower pools 

 within reach of tide water become useless because they are shallow at low tide and 

 salt at high tide. In neither case will salmon take the fly. It is apparent that an 

 early run is most desirable, for the river is then likely to be full with the spring 

 flood, and the fishing range is much extended. Average weight of Godbout salmon 

 is eleven pounds. In many other rivers it is double and over. However, it is a 

 prolific river, the catch in one given year exceeding 500 fish to five rods, aggregat- 

 ing a weight of 5,200 pounds. 



