846 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



strands of scarlet ibis, brown cock's hackle under wings, 

 body of ground hog's fur, plucked off the stomach, with a 

 couple of strands of guinea-fowl feather for tail. If the 

 water should have been discoloured with rain, substitute a 

 little of the golden-pheasant topknot for the termination, 

 instead of the guinea-fowl. By coming here early in the 

 season, as above advised, you will moreover escape the 

 attacks of those confounded pests, the black flies, which 

 generally make their appearance the second week of June, 

 when woe betide you ; for if you are compelled to submit 

 to their persecutions, your tortures from the results might 

 turn your hair gray in a night, or drive you crazy for the 

 remainder of life. No one can sympathise with the un- 

 fortunate Egyptians so well as he who has visited the Maine 

 fishing-regions in the fly season. 



Before leaving Upton for the Wilds, as by this name 

 your future resting-places may well be called, we would 

 revert to the practice of throwing snwdust that comes from 

 mills into the water. Now, although some may not be 

 aware of it, there is nothing more destructive to trout and 

 salmon than these minute particles of timber. The fish, as 

 they rest head up stream, imbibe them into their mouths, 

 whence they pass into the gills and stomach, ultimately 

 causing disease and death. When this is known to be the 

 case, would it not be well to insist that this debris should 

 otherwise be disposed of, which may, without much labour 

 or inconvenience, be accomplished by fire. Hendrick 

 Hudson, the first explorer of the magnificent river which 

 bears his name in America, speaks of that river as swarming 

 with salmon ; but where are they now ? Gone, never to 



