IN A FISHING COUNTRY 



leave out the thumbs. Pressed as to weight, 

 he preferred to supply these unvarying 

 dimensions and allow us to work the 

 formulas : — 



'You have your figures, and are able to 

 calculate better than I.' 



'Nine pounds? — Ten pounds?' 



^Au moins, pent etre plus.' 



If you are sensible of the growing re- 

 proach we felt until the tradition should 

 be run to earth you will ask why, at the 

 first hearing, we did not fly to these virgin 

 waters. Could one indeed but fly! A hun- 

 dred less likely things have happened than 

 that this should become the accepted way 

 of going a-fishing, but for us who still must 

 swink and sweat across the world's irregu- 

 lar cumbered surface, the first step of all 

 was to clear the trail for a canoe. Little 

 can be done from the shore of a lake; a raft 

 of green timber is a poor ship, tedious to 

 make and ill to navigate; nothing like a 

 fair trial could be had without portaging 

 the amphibious craft through some leagues 

 of forest. Also the attack must be duly 

 timed, for only twice in the year is it likely 

 that the large brook trout of the lakes will 

 concern themselves with surface food — 

 during the hatch of the may-fly, or when 

 154 



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