2 28 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



consisting of two young collegians and myself, started from 

 a small saw-mill, situated on a large brook which rippled and 

 gashed down a mountain side in one of the forests of New 

 Hampshire. We were in quest of a lake from which flowed 

 the stream above mentioned, having been told that there 

 the Speckled Trout did much abound. Our informant, how- 

 ever, a young farmer of the neighborhood, cared but little 

 apparently for the Trout, but was extreme in his laudation 

 of the size end quality of the "Bull-pouts" which likewise 

 inhabited Pennyroyal Pond, for so this lake was named. 

 The miller had shown us one end of a trail which he said 

 would lead to the pond by a more direct route than we could 

 have by tracing the course of the stream. We however 

 learned to our sorrow that several logging roads and other 

 trails branched from or intersected- the one we desired to fol- 

 low, so that we missed the proper course and were at last 

 only enabled to find the object of our search by climbing a 

 tree, and, by compass, taking the bearings of a granite peak 

 at the foot of which I knew the lake to be situated. At last, 

 near sunset, we reached the shore, and seating ourselves 

 upon the most comfortable log we could find, gazed out upon 

 this little mountain tarn. 



It was situated in a bowl-shaped depression among the hills, 

 and a dark spruce forest rose from shore to summit in smooth 

 and regular sweep. To our right was the gray granite peak 

 which had been our guide, reflected from the clear waters of 

 the lake, which here and there were dimpled by rising fish or 

 the trail of the summer duck. It was a beautiful scene, and 

 my companions, who had stood the tramp pretty well, were 

 enthusiastic in its praise. Never before had they been so 

 completely isolated from civilization, and to them nearly 

 everything we saw was a novelty. Having rested, two of us 

 set to work to prepare a camp, while the other, after joint- 

 ing his rod, walked down to the lake in order to catch some 

 Trout for supper. 



