72 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



before the report of a rifle comes sharply over the water from 

 the tent, summoning the angler to breakfast. Soon, with long, 

 swinging strokes of his paddle, he reaches the beach near the 

 tent, springs ashore, and draws his canoe up on the beach. 

 The fish are unloaded and counted, and he finds he has caught 

 eighteen Salmon that will average sixteen pounds each. 



After breakfast he takes a hatchet and breaks up the dark- 

 looking objects that he dug up in the sand the night before, 

 which prove to be mussels, and scours the flesh white with 

 sea-water and sand. Using these for a lure on his rude 

 spoon, before noon he succeeds in catching twenty-four more 

 Salmon. When the steamer calls for him the following even- 

 ing, he has at least half a ton of Salmon carried on board. 



Think of it! O ye anglers who pay an exorbitant license 

 to fish in the mosquito-haunted rivers of Canada! Here one 

 man in two days has caught more Salmon (and he does not 

 consider himself an expert angler) than you could have caught 

 in a Canadian river in a whole season. Then remember 

 that directly west, where the Northern Pacific, or the Union 

 Pacific, or the Canadian Pacific Railway may land you in four 

 days, lies a region that for beauty of scenery, for mildness of 

 climate, and for absence of insect plagues, the world 

 can never equal. Leave the insect-haunted rivers for old 

 fogies, and seek an outing in the summer-lafid of sunset, and 

 you will always bless the day you did so, and the man who 

 advised you thus. 



You need not copy the rude methods of the man to whom 

 I have introduced you. You may, if you will (but I do not 

 advise it), bring with you your light, split-bamboo fly rod, 

 your neatly turned Skinner or Buell spoon, your fifteen-thread 

 Cuttyhunk line, and your Kentucky reel, and may enjoy the 

 sport to your cultivated taste. 



True, our Salmon do not take the fly, but they are as gamy 

 when hooked as your Canadian Salmon; our waters are as 

 clear as your Canadian waters; our skies as bright as your 



