AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 263 



camp as soon as the sun had expelled the frost from 

 the vegetation. On the way down we caught a num- 

 ber of grasshoppers the orthodox bait in this region 

 to fall back on in case of necessity; for there are 

 days when the mountain trout, as well as his cousin, 

 the brook trout of the East, declines the most seduc- 

 tive fly on the bill of fare, and will have nothing but 

 his favorite every -day diet. 



Arriving at the river, Westbrook skirmished 

 through the brush until he found an alder about an 

 inch and a quarter in diameter at the ground and ten 

 or twelve feet high. This he cut, trimmed up, and 

 attached his line, a number two Sproat hook and a 

 split shot, put on a " hopper," and was ready for 

 business. I remonstrated gently with him on the 

 heathenish character of his tackle, but he said, pleas- 

 antly and politely, that it was the kind that gener- 

 ally got to the front when trout-fishing was the 

 business in hand. He said the fancy rods and reels 

 and flies were all well enough for those who wanted 

 to use them, but he preferred something with 

 which he could round up his fish and corral them 

 without losing any time. He said it was all 

 right for any gentlemen to spend halL an hour 

 monkeying a trout after he had hooked it, if he 

 wanted to, but for his part, he never could see 

 much fun in that sort of fishing. He thought it 

 was decidedly more interesting to yank a fish in 

 out of the wet the instant he bit, and then lay for 

 another. 



He walked boldly out into the stream, waded 

 down a little way below the ford, on a riffle, till he 

 reached a point where the water was about two 



