314 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



Ye lords and commoners, who pay enormous rentals for 

 salmon rivers, can you, with all the paraphernalia that a 

 London fishing-tackle establishment can supply, with all 

 the attendance and accessories that wealth can purchase, 

 show a finer record? Truly I doubt if it is possible. 

 Again I commenced at the head of the pool, and slowly 

 progressed downwards ; one fish I stirred, but on a second 

 time casting over him, he refused to put in an appearance. 

 Step after step I descended, and when not more than ten 

 yards below where I had hooked my first fish, I struck 

 another ; but alas ! the hook did not hold; a few spasmodic 

 struggles, and he was free. 



Salmon or trout fishing is not alone enjoyable for the 

 pleasure of killing fish, but for the scenery and attach- 

 ments which form the necessary adjuncts to the sport. 

 The distance from the haunts of fellow-men, the solitude 

 of perhaps the surrounding forest, the soft murmuring 

 of the descending and rushing water, the opportunity 

 afforded to study nature in its unalloyed purity all 

 tend to enhance, to the true lover of nature, this princely 

 sport ; the very combination of all these et ceteras making 

 the perfection which all will acknowledge to belong to fly- 

 fishing. 



I must have been resting some time, when a more for- 

 midable attack of insects recalled me to reality ; and as I 

 raised myself gently, with destructive intent to slaughter 

 without compunction those most persevering assailants, 

 my eye caught sight of an animal evidently in full 

 pursuit of some prey : it was not an otter, for its forma- 

 tion was different ; nor a mink, for the size was much 



