226 CKANBEinn' T.AKE. — the OSWEOATriUR. 



pull — ''of this whole" — pull — " blauk business. There I 

 Fv^e got you I but, blank the whole blank business ! I feel 

 as if 1 had been stealing sheej) : blank nie if 1 don't ! Let's 

 go to camp, Captain. — T don't think I eaiv to tish if j'ou 

 call this tishing I " 



The rest of us went up the P>ig Tnlet at the head of the 

 lake, through the tloodwood and dead standi,ng trees — at 

 some places very difficult of passage after leaving the 

 main body of the lake — fully nine or ten miles from camp, 

 to the foot of the rapids where the Oswegatchie comes 

 tumbling into the dead water. Not a trout did we take in 

 all that day, althcmgh we saw some large fellows leaping 

 in sport. It will not do for the scoruer to insinuate that 

 the fault was in the tishermen, — rather let it lie laid to 

 proverbial fisherman's luck.— for the Captain and the 

 Sheriff, whose skill needs no vindication, subsequently' had 

 there precisely the same experience. 



It was the general understanding of the party, — a sort of 

 unwritten law, as binding as the English Constitution, — 

 that the "good places" should be passed around ; and by 

 virtue of this law the Mayor and I were permitted to lish 

 Brandy Brook the next day, under a sun that broiled and 

 roasted after a most vigorous and emphatic fashion. The 

 Captain and Sheriff had devoted several hours vof faithful 

 labor to removing obstructions, so that there were various 

 open spaces and reaches of water where lly casting was 

 feasible. We fished as skillfully and devotedly as we 

 knew and with genuine ardor, ascending the flooded por- 

 tion of the stream to the "quick" water. At the close of the 



