20 Sporting Sketches 



ing ; must frequently wade in cold water and think 

 naught of a ducking, and must be able to handle 

 his grains, or spear, for thrust or throw, as skilfully 

 as a Zulu warrior handles his deadly assegai. 



Stealing along a trout brook, or fishing from boat 

 or punt, doesn't develop these qualities, and as the 

 swell angler hasn't got them, perforce, in his opin- 

 ion, they are no good. Be that as it may, we of 

 the old restless, rough-and-tumble crowd learned to 

 handle grains before we could cast a fly, and many 

 a day's fun we enjoyed ; for spearing is preemi- 

 nently a sport for country boys and men. 



When April's tears and smiles prevail against icy 

 fetters and let the prisoned waters run, comes the 

 brief spring season for the grains. On Northern 

 waters the ice is generally rushed away to the lakes 

 by heavy floods, which spread far over the lowlands 

 bordering the streams. For a brief period rivers 

 are many times their normal size; every tributary 

 creek and streamlet is a swollen, discolored contri- 

 bution to the volume of the larger streams, and 

 every ditch is bankful or overflowed. Once the ice 

 is carried off and the outlets are free, the great 

 waterways lower as rapidly as they rose, and all over- 

 flows, and back-waters sweep back to the main chan- 

 nels. Naturally, the waters of the creeks, brooks, 

 and ditches run clear in a short time ; and while a 

 river may be several feet above its average level and 

 as opaque as" pea soup, its tributaries may be pure 

 and transparent as springs. 



Just after the ice goes and the floods begin to 

 subside, the " run " of fish for "the spawning beds 

 commences. Nets are put into active service in the 



