356 PEAIRIE AND FOREST. 



following up the Androscoggin river, which enters the 

 top of the last-mentioned lake, you get into a perfect 

 labyrinth of lakes and ponds, united together by 

 brawling streams, only navigable by the lumberman's 

 flat or Indian's birchback. On all sides precipitous 

 mountains rise, covered with pine trees where there is 

 a possibility of their clinging, or immense boulders, to 

 all appearance ready to roll from their resting-place 

 into the waters beneath. And here in this vast soli- 

 tude, free from cares, we made our home ; fishing or 

 hunting by day, and sleeping such sleep upon piles of 

 hemlock as seldom is enjoyed on feather beds (that is, 

 at the end of the fly season) ; for though the bears 

 might growl around, the grey wolf give us a proof of 

 his vocal powers, or the weird note of the loon come 

 shrilly over the waters, still all formed but a lullaby to 

 make us rest the better. 



In fishing the rivers of all the wild lands of the 

 extreme northern portion of the United States and 

 the Dominion for trout or salmon, little or no sport 

 will be experienced by the angler until the snow water 

 has run off ; in fact I do not believe the latter fish will 

 enter a river that has not got rid of that addition. 

 We got to our fishing ground just at the desired time ; 

 a guide we consulted said we were too soon. It being 

 better to be early than late, we pushed at once for our 

 first halting place, and the result was that we hit 

 things so nicely that we struck the opening day. For 

 about two or three weeks the take was very great, and 

 the variety of colouring .among our prizes something 

 wonderful. A collecting naturalist, a pupil of the 

 celebrated professor of natural history at Yale College, 

 Cambridge, Massachusetts, joined our party a few days 



