6 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



being granted ; thus if a heavy gun after a hard day's 

 work will make you undershoot your game, a heavy rod 

 will have a greater tendency to make you a sluggard at 

 evening in striking your fish, and the result will be about 

 similar in both instances. For the trout fisherman he, I 

 mean, who fly- fishes burns and rivers from twelve to 

 thirteen feet is quite sufficient length for his rod to be 

 (lake fishermen frequently use longer, but what they gain 

 in reach they lose in quickness, a loss, in my estimation, of 

 most serious importance), and such a rod should not 

 exceed in weight eight or nine ounces. I can imagine I 

 ^ee many cast up their eyes and exclaim that such 

 'is impossible to procure, but let me say they are 

 mistaken. I have owned several of that weight, and with 

 them, days in succession, have taken baskets offish, of not 

 only all the ordinary sizes, but on one occasion killed a 

 trout nine pounds in weight. As I cannot help regarding 

 this as a performance to be proud of, I will relate how it 

 took place. A couple of companions and myself were 

 encamped on the margin of Mad River, in Oxford County, 

 State of Maine. Our guns had failed to provide dinner, 

 so taking a hazel wand I essayed to capture sufficient chub 

 to make a c/tv/rf/rr, a description of olfa jtodrida stew. 

 Having hooked a small fish, I was about lifting it into the 

 canoe win n a large trout rushed from underneath the 

 birch-bark, sei/ed the eliul), and although I gave him both 

 lint- and time to pouch what had not been intended for a 

 bait, on taking a pull the chub came HWIIT, and I was free 

 from tip linguist. Having oaught sufficient small 



fry I \\ent home, brooding over my misfortune, but keeping 



