248 LINES IN PLEASANT PLACES 



happened the bait was withdrawn and hurled elsewhere. 

 If the bass mean feeding they let you know it pretty 

 quickly, and in this simple way a fisherman often, in 

 a couple of hours, gets a quarter of a hundredweight 

 or so of them, ranging from 2 Ib. to 5 Ib. 



But after a quarter of an hour with the frog, Ben 

 pronounced the absolute uselessness of remaining any 

 longer. While he was operating I had fixed up my 

 most useful portmanteau-rod with its fly-fishing tops, 

 and with a sea-trout collar, and a small, silver-bodied 

 salmon fly cast over the open spaces. This was no 

 more successful than the frog, and we, as a matter of 

 fact, caught nothing at all that evening. These green 

 bass take the bait voraciously (" like so-and-so bull- 

 dogs," Ben assured me) when they are sporting, and 

 haunt these reedy coppices in incredible numbers. As 

 with the 'lunge so with the bass. I should say that 

 with proper appliances and some approach to a skilful 

 method, the arm, on a favourable day, would ache 

 with the slaughter. One of the canoes next morning 

 at breakfast time brought in a couple of these fish of 

 about a pound weight. They were dark green in colour, 

 fitted up with a big mouth and a spiny dorsal fin, and 

 had all the burly proportions of a perch, minus the 

 hog-shaped shoulders. 



That same day two Port Perry gentlemen, keen and 

 good anglers both, left their homes and businesses to 

 drive me and friend A. in a pair horse buggy some nine 

 miles across country to a fishing house belonging to a 

 club of which they were members. Indeed, they were 

 part proprietors, for more and more in Canada every bit 

 of water that is worth the acquisition is taken up for 

 preservation. The club consists principally of pro- 

 fessional and business men from Toronto, and the 

 doctors are a large proportion. For the sake of a 



