A DAY ON A NOVA SCOTIAN TROUT LAKE 31 



insects newly emerged from their cases, scattered them in multitudes 

 over the surface of the lake, to be eagerly seized by the feeding trout. 

 On occasions the trout appeared to collect in a big school and make 

 a complete circuit of the lake at the distance of a moderate cast 

 from the shore. Should one rise at this juncture, he is usually 

 marvellously unsophisticated in his procedure. 



The water fairly ' boils ' as they break briskly in their progress 

 of triumph, greedily gorging themselves until they become almost 

 entirely indifferent to the artificial lure, although positively ravenous 

 for the half-dead ephemerae. They can now at length forget the 

 hard fare of the long winter days before the loosening of the ice, 

 when they languidly sought for spots of open water and disdained 



A TYPICAL NOVA SCOTIAN TROUT LAKE. 



not to seize the bit of pork let down through the ice hole by the 

 rustic urchin, or a pectoral fin of one of their own brethren dangled 

 in the open water of the ' run in '. 



The mayfly soon puts in the pink of condition the lively fish 

 which swim in the pellucid waters of such a clear rock-margined 

 lake as this. Note the small well-shaped head, the broad back, 

 the well-proportioned form, the swift dash at the fly, and the spirited 

 contest for dear life as the slender 6-oz. rod is arched to the butt 

 by some plump gamey trout, not much over the pound, whose 

 pluck and leaping powers are often rewarded by escaping his fate 

 within the very jaws of the landing net. How different in every 

 essential from the trout of the low-lying marsh-fringed forest lake, 



