DAYS WITH THE LAND-LOCKED SALMON. 



103 



Pine and birch growing among moss-covered boulders 

 offered abundance of firewood. Emptying out the lug- 

 gage, Thomas and I paddled off to try for the famous 

 land-locked salmon, while Olivier stayed to make the 

 camp. Query Why are these fish called land-locked? 

 The first answer that would suggest itself to a con- 

 trarious mind would be because they usually are 

 found where they have free access to the sea, which is 

 actually the case here ; but there are, no doubt, 

 exceptions to this. Over the lake in the distance, the 

 shores trended away north and east, and dissolved into 

 a dim line of pine trees. "We first commenced in a 

 broad current near the left bank, where it was 

 evidently of considerable depth, and where fish coast- 

 ing round the lake would first strike moving water, for 

 it lay at the very commencement of the outflow. At 

 this spot almost all my fish were captured, twenty-nine 

 altogether, weighing ninety-eight pounds, as well as 

 eighteen fish of other kinds, in three days' fishing. 

 These last were principally pike and pike-perch, the 

 latter a villainous-looking and ferocious fish, with a 

 mouth like a shark. For an hour the fun was fast and, 

 occasionally, it was furious. We soon found the 

 aforesaid piece of water was the " daisy," and I am 

 inclined to think that not once were the phantoms (for 

 that was what I used) trailed across the current with- 

 out one, if not both, rods being " delightfully agitated." 

 But Thomas bungled in a most unskilful manner 

 while endeavouring to secure the first victim. I had 

 brought it alongside the canoe it was a large fish, of 



