CHAPTER XV. 



HOOKING UP TEOUT THE LEFT BRANCH THE RAPIDS A FIGHT 



WITH A BUCK. 



WE started down stream in the morning, towards the 

 forks, intending to ascend the left branch to Little Tapper's 

 Lake. We reached the forks at three o'clock. Directly 

 opposite to where the right branch enters, a small cold 

 stream comes in among a cluster of alder bushes on the 

 eastern shore. At the mouth of this little stream, which one 

 can step across, the trout congregate. We could see them 

 laying in shoals along the bottom ; but the sun shone down 

 bright and warm into the clear water, and not a trout would 

 rise to the fly, or touch a bait. We wanted some of those 

 trout, and as they refused to be taken in a scientific way 

 and according to art, it was a necessity, for which we were 

 not responsible, which impelled us to a method of capture 

 which, under ordinary circumstances, we should have re- 

 jected. I took off the fly from my line, and fastened upon 

 it half a dozen snells with bare hooks, attached a small 



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