512 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



net, while they were playing rigorously, we would take them 

 on a spring upward through the water, and by a quick move- 

 ment, adding to their impetus, would land them on the raft. 

 We took several of that most splendidly beautiful of all trout, 

 the "red bellied" — for their bellies are as if of burnished 

 gold, heated to a red heat, while the spots upon their sides 

 fairly glitter, while their fins are black, bordered with white. 



The moment they were hooked, we could see their sides 

 flash up from the depths of the hole like the gleam of an 

 angry blaze, and they shot like fiery meteors through the 

 air as they leaped from it. We moved on slowly down the 

 stream with our raft, after they ceased to bite here, and took 

 from one to two and four pounds from every hole we passed, 

 until I became weary of the sport, and even Piscator con- 

 fessed himself for once to have had enough of trout fishing. 

 The time had come for our return home, and now the inter- 

 minable rain set in again more violently than ever, and our 

 guide, who had fifty pounds of trout upon his shoulder, 

 shrank from clambering back over the mountain with such a 

 burden, and we landed on the opposite side of the river, to 

 return by a new and longer though more level route. 



Of all the dismal and exhausting walks ever taken, this 

 seemed to me the most so. A violent west wind ha-d set in, 

 dashing on its cold current the colder rain into our faces. 

 We were chilled and wet in an instant after starting. Much 

 of the way led through a deep tangle of elder and raspberry 

 bushes, which were as high as our heads, and bent with the 

 burden of icy rain drops. So this gave us a double bath. 

 We managed — or, our guide did for us ! — to get lost in the 

 bargain; had five miles to tramp through the thick pine 

 woods, plunging through swamps, and stumbling into deep 

 holes, over roots, dead trees, and rocks. There was one 

 comfort before us, at least, the prospect that we should find 

 our host waiting for us at the bridge with the wagon. 



