RAT HOLE CAMP. — COUNCIL. — RETURN. 233 



The guides built a rousing fire, wc dried oiu- cloUiing 

 which was saturated with perspiratir^u from our severe toil, 

 smoked and rubbed on tlie tar-oil; and the Slieriff and I 

 crawled into " Kat-ilole Cami»," (a snug fit for two.) while 

 the tired guides tlirew down a few lioughs on two sides of 

 the fire, (I piled up a few l)ushes to keep the wind off from 

 them.) pulh'd on llieir coats and hats, and lay down to 

 sleep without roof, bed, pillow or blanket. 



In the morning, l)efore breakfast, I took a boat and went 

 up the river, fisliing on my own account, with a lofty 

 ambition to vindicate the fame of Grass Kiver wliich liad 

 suffered su<h dire humiliation the day before. At call, 

 I came back with one fingerling. At breakfast we 

 held a council of war. We Avere right in the heart of 

 that wonderful fishing country which we had heard praised 

 so highly, and the fish were not. The water, we decided, 

 was rapidly going down as the result of drawing off . the 

 Reservoir, and if we remained a few hours longer we might 

 have great ditTiculty in getting out of this inhospital)le re- 

 gion ; and, further, we were doul)ly satisfied that the trout 

 had gone somewhere — ])ossibly upstream, among the 

 alders, in which case we could not reach tliciii, pndmbly 

 down to the flowed lands, where it would be an impossi- 

 bility to find them. We were forced to the lugubrious 

 conclusion that the drawing off of the water had so 

 changed the conditions that the splendid fishing of the 

 year before, which the Sheriff and Captain had enjoyed, 

 was ruined. This was not an exceptional case, for good 

 fishing changes localities at different seasons of the year, 



