392 PEAIEIE AND FOEEST. 



It is always pleasant on a new field of operations to 

 obtain a slight inkling of what you may expect. It is far 

 from agreeable to have to draw a charge of snipe-shot, 

 and thus lose time, to substitute B B, or perhaps ball, 

 small game being expected and large game found. In 

 wandering about the neighbourhood of my temporary resi- 

 dence, about two miles from home, I came upon one of 

 those beautiful little sheets of water so frequently found 

 upon the northern portion of the American Continent. 

 This soon became a favourite retreat, for wild duck were 

 numerous on a portion where wild rice grew luxuriantly, 

 and passenger pigeons and spruce grouse had adopted it as 

 a watering-place, owing to its freedom from intruders. All 

 devoted admirers of nature know what a pleasure it is to 

 be alone where none of man's work mars the prospect, 

 where every object the eye rests upon is as it came from 

 the Creator's hands, unsullied and unchanged. As I sat 

 on a rocky promontory to see the sun dip the horizon, 

 perhaps visions of my distant land or far-off friends 

 flitting before me, I was struck with the immense numbers 

 of fish that kept breaking the unrippled surface 

 good evidence that the rod and line might find abundant 

 work, and on the next visit I determined to put it to 

 the test. 



To those who are acquainted with the birch-bark canoe 

 it is needless forme to say anything. All the praises I 

 could sound could not further enhance it in their estima- 

 tion; but to those who are not, to them let me say, that 

 there is not in existence a more perfect piece of mechan- 

 ism for the purpose it is intended. Only learn to handle 



