52 SUMMER DAYS ON 



So with yarns of the choleric colonel did Enoch beguile the hour 

 of siesta one bright afternoon as we smoked our pipes, resting on 

 the slope of the mill-dam, whence we had a view of the Falls Pool 

 immediately beneath us. It is a good pool, but full of sunken logs 

 and branches which a hooked fish is not slow to take advantage of. 

 Indeed, it is one of those pools which afford so many chagrins that 

 I would not advise a man of ' mild and peaceable spirit ' to fish it 

 too often, lest he might fall from grace and develop a temper. 

 Crede experto. The way of a salmon among submerged timber 

 passeth all understanding. 



THE RIVER INFANCY . 



It is a curious pool to fish, for you cast from the dam, and as 

 you look down upon the sunny water you often see a fish or two 

 sculling gently along with a dreamy motion, or else poised at his 

 station on easy fin. You can see the whole process of his taking 

 the fly, and are very apt to draw it away on that account before your 

 fish has well seized it. Personally, I prefer not to see the fish for 

 which I cast, as I much enjoy that sudden revelation of what lurks 

 behind the veil the quick surprise ; the lifting of the curtain that 

 hides the finny tribe from observation. 



Our river distinctly divides itself into three parts : the upper 

 is infancy, the middle is youth, the lower manhood. The upper 



