THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN TROUT. 277 



always been able to catch plenty of two and three pounders 

 with a fly or with grasshoppers, and they were good enough ; 

 but I have known others to do so, and if ever I get left on the 

 fair-sized ones I am liable to go after one of the big ones in 

 this way. I speak of using small Trout for bait, only because 

 chubs or other minnows are rarely found in mountain streams. 



Worms need scarcely to be mentioned here, for they are 

 not indigenous to the mountain soil, and so the Trout there 

 are not educated to them. They occasionally take them, 

 when offered, but not with the eagerness of the Brook 

 Trout. 



Of all angling known to lovers of angling, that wherein the 

 Mountain Trout is the object of pursuit is surely the grandest, 

 the most fascinating. That this statement will be challenged 

 by the Salmon angler, and the more modern Tarpon angler, I 

 am well aware; and though I grant the advocates of each of 

 these, all the glory and all the sport there is in their kinds of 

 fishing, yet I am prepared to stand by my assertion; and if 

 only the devotee of either of the big fishes will but come with 

 me into the mountains for a week, I will convince him that I 

 am right. 



The joys of Mountain Trouting are largely owing to the 

 surroundings. The character of the streams and lakes, the 

 grand mountain ranges that overshadow them, the rare, 

 exhilarating atmosphere that fills the sportsman's lungs and 

 buoys up his spirits, are conditions that are not enjoyed in 

 any other class of fishing, unless it be that for Salmon, and 

 not usually even this. Then the fact that the Trout rise 

 greedily at almost every cast, and that frequently a dozen or 

 more of them will rush for the flies at once, while in Salmon- 

 fishing a rise is a thing usually to be long and eagerly worked 

 for before being obtained, places Mountain Trouting far in 

 advance of it, in the opinion of most men who have enjoyed 

 both, notwithstanding the difference in size of the two fishes. 



A better idea of the sport under consideration may per- 



