FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



did not think of black flies, nor rocks and sore shins. My 

 friend sometimes generously came near shore, and once I 

 thought I saw him throw his tail up, as a sure sign of grow- 

 ing weakness, but it was all sham. He was only studying 

 my tackle, and his means of escape by parting it. He was 

 up near the gaff several times, and eyed the instrument crit- 

 ically, but with a whirl of astonishment akin to anger and 

 disdain, as if in this age of negro suffrage a man so cruel 

 could be found as to. fight salmon with so unequal and hide- 

 ous a weapon. But he curled on the water, and while he 

 touched his nose with the end of his tail, he looked askance 

 for an instant ; then he made a prodigious leap down stream, 

 and plunged some ten feet under water and came up five 

 rods above, thus forming a bight in the line, by which he ex- 

 pected to gain slack and extricate himself. But it was all no 

 go. I thought he was mine, and preserved great care lest he 

 should unhook while bringing him to the gaff. He came for- 

 ward as willing as a pet lamb until within three rods of shore ; 

 he then made a turn, and with dips, dives, leaps, and other 

 devices, liberated himself, and took my fly-hook with him. I 

 felt wilted ; worse, I was outgeneraled ; worse still, I was 

 vanquished. I once more mechanically walked nearly a mile 

 to the foot of the rapid, but I could not cast with hope and 

 confidence, and, as the sun was about setting and the musqui- 

 toes began their carnival, I repaired to the tent and to sup- 

 per, used up, though partially successful. 



Thus ended my first afternoon's angling for salmon in 

 Lower Canada. 



SECTION FIFTH. 



TENTING IN THE WILDERNESS. 



Our guides had pitched our tents, and carpeted them with 

 fir -boughs which they clipped from the shrubbery back- 

 ground of the plateau. My bed consisted of two breadths 

 six and a half feet long of canvas, closed by a seam length- 

 wise up the centre, and hemmed six inches wide at each side 



