308 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



under control, and by exercising a little politeness of 

 the give-and-take order, I brought him into shallow 

 water. Jock, now my faithful attendant, was by, and 

 with intense delight waded into the stream. " Careful, 

 boy ! be cautious ! " But all was thrown away ; he 

 made a grab at the fish with the gaff, as the sailor 

 had done before, but fortunately dragged it in water 

 too shoal for swimming. Jock saw he had made 

 a bungle, and was determined to retrieve if possible 

 his lost reputation, so threw himself on the struggling 

 salmon, and after a wrestling match of some minutes, 

 with imminent danger to my tackle, proudly walked 

 ashore, wet from head to foot, with the prize tightly 

 cuddled up in his arms. Although at first tempted to 

 anathematise the young scamp, I enjoyed a hearty- 

 laugh at the nonchalance with which the monkey 

 treated his ducking. 



Moving down the water, I recommenced operations 

 and rose two good fish; soon I got fast to a third, 

 which gave me ten minutes' splendid sport, then he 

 sulked, and after tw r o or three futile attempts to escape, 

 succumbed. I was surprised at obtaining so easy a 

 victory, but this was explained by finding a piece cut 

 out of his back, in front of the first dorsal fin, upwards 

 of an inch in width, and two or three long. In trout 

 fishing, I have once or twice taken fish similarly 

 wounded ; and, as there were no gill nets at either 

 place, the only satisfactory reason I can attribute is 

 that either a seal or an otter was the perpetrator. 



As the evening advanced I changed flies, and 

 selected what I have long known by the sobriquet of 

 "the drummer;" it is composed thus: the mottled 

 feathers of the peacock's wing, with a few strands 'of 



