THE LAND-LOCKED SALMON. 103 



one might get in a day. I have seen forty to fifty taken by a 

 single rod. Nowadays it is rather amusing to see enthusias- 

 tic American anglers publish a score of ten or twelve as some- 

 thing surprising. The average size has also decreased 

 notably, which shows that anglers are catching younger fish. 

 In the times I speak of, four and five pounders were common 

 enough, but now they are scarce in the best waters. 



In 1883, twenty days' fishing gave a score of three hundred 

 and seventeen fish to one rod; or, deducting Sundays, 

 nineteen a day; and this was not fishing all day, by any 

 means. Let me hasten to say that there was no desire to 

 make a record; that there were some very small day's 

 catches, owing to the enormous number of flies on the 

 water, which gorged the fish; that a good deal of time 

 was spent in work and loafing; and that all but the few 

 needed for food were liberated either at once or after a few 

 days' detention for observation in a pretty fish pond engi- 

 neered among the rocks. 



On one of these days fifty-three fish were taken by another 

 angler in the same pools at the Grande Chute. The highest 

 score I have ever made was forty-two, and I only mention 

 it to put on record the abundance of fish then existing. But 

 the solitude and the charm have now gone forever from the 

 Upper Saguenay, together with the possibilities of those times. 



I think I have said enough about the nature and ways of 

 these little Salmon. Let me try to describe a typical but a 

 real day's sport with them, and I hope you may, my reader, 

 have just such an one with as good a companion and as true 

 an angler as I had that June day in 1888, in our Saguenay 

 Club waters. 



We start with a "Bonne chance, Messieurs ," from the 

 guardian's pretty wife, a black-eyed, olive-complexioned girl 

 of sixteen. 



Two of the canoe-men, putting their canoes on their heads 

 almost as easily as their hats, have gone on; their mates wait 



