ACADIAN FISH AND FISHING. 247 



from pool to pool) with its scarlet-sliirted paddlers, 

 creeps through the water by the opposite shore. 



There are but one or two places in the cliffs here 

 where a camp may be pitched, and, if these are occupied, 

 we must drop down-stream again to some less-frequented 

 locality. The best of these is a green sloping bank, over 

 which a cool brook courses between copses of hazel and 

 alder into the river below. It is a charming situation, 

 and from a grassy plateau overhanging the river, where 

 the camps are usually placed, we may look down into a 

 clear pool, some seventy feet below, and watch the 

 salmon which occupy it, dressed in distinct ranks. 



The Grand Falls are rather more than 100 feet in 

 height. The river, here greatly contracted, descends 

 into a deep boiling pool, first by a succession of headlong 

 tumbles, and then in a compact and perpendicular fall of 

 forty feet. The first fishing pool is just below the 

 eddying basin at the foot of the fall, which is seldom 

 entered by the canoe men, as currents both of air 

 and water sweep round it towards the pitch ; besides, 

 the fish here are so engaged in battling with the heaving 

 water, in their vain attempts to surmount the falls, that 

 they will not regard the fly. 



All this portion of the Nepisiguit must be fished from 

 a canoe, excepting a few rocky stands, where almost 

 every cast is made at the risk of the hook snapping 

 against the cliffs behind ; and this leads us to say a few 

 words on the canoe men of the river. They are a hardy 

 and generally intelligent race of Acadian-French, appa- 

 rently a good deal crossed with Indian blood, exceedingly 

 skilful in managing their bark canoes, and in getting 

 fish for the sportsman; they have great experience in 



