GLIMPSES OF CANADA, ETC. 239 



shoulder. Probably this accounted for the number of 

 times he pummelled the small of my back with the 

 clumsily advanced handles of his oars. 



My rod, I might explain, was the trolling or sea 

 fishing version of a capital greenheart portmanteau 

 rod, to which I had treated myself in hopes of use in 

 Canadian waters, and was a stiff little pole (in this 

 form) of a trifle over 9 ft. The medium dressed silk 

 trout-line on a grilse winch was about a hundred yards 

 in length, and quite sound, and on a twisted gut trace 

 I had attached a 3-in. blue phantom. Ben impartially, 

 not to say profanely, objected to the lot. We had 

 ample opportunity to admire the very pretty scenery 

 of the lake shores, and the charmingly timbered island 

 which for ten miles diversified the blue water. The 

 depth was seldom over 6 ft. or 8 ft., there were sub- 

 aqueous forests of weeds in all directions, but there 

 was a kind of channel known to Ben where one had the 

 chance of intervals of peace spells of clear spinning 

 for A.'s great spoon to starboard and my delicate 

 phantom to port. In those times of tranquil leisure 

 we learned much as to the splendid duck-shooting of 

 the fall and the wonderful stores of fish in the lake. 



Scugog is not a show place, but it is beautiful in its 

 quiet way ; the surroundings are quite English, and 

 Port Perry is a pleasant type of the small, prosperous 

 Canadian town where nobody perhaps is very rich and 

 nobody very poor. The aforesaid island in the centre 

 makes the lake appear quite narrow, and, indeed, its 

 length of fourteen miles is double its widest breadth 

 with island included. And it is one of a chain of 

 Ontarian waterways so vast that, had we been so 

 minded and properly prepared, we might have passed 

 through close upon 200 miles of lakes and connecting 

 channels. Two hours of incessant hauling in of weed 



