A DISCOVERY. 377 



here." " Yes," I replied, " and that is not all — there are 

 trout here !" You should have seen his look of supreme 

 disgust at the suggestion that so noble fish as the trout 

 would live in such a dirty hole as this. "We'll see, 

 John," I said, and rigging my line, I told him to let 

 the boat float by itself. I then cast my fly, and in an 

 instant two or three spotted fellows rose to the surface. 

 In a few minutes I had enough for supper. 



1 was convinced that this was not the main inlet, and 

 told John so. By the merest luck in coming out of 

 this, we struck the other. Pushing up this some dis- 

 tance, the boat suddenly ran against a pole, the ends, of 

 which were completely imbedded in the soft shores. John 

 got out, and by the greatest effort succeeded in wrench- 

 ing one end loose and swinging it around. He then 

 examined it long and attentively. I inquired what he was 

 staring at. " This stick," he replied, " has been here a 

 great many years ; it's half-rotted through, and see, here 

 is a stick stuck right alongside of it to keep it from 

 being washed away. No boat has passed here for fifty 

 years. This has been the crossing -pi ace of some trapper 

 some time or another ;" and he went on accumulating 

 evidence upon evidence clear as sunlight to a hunter, 

 and which he made equally clear to me, to show when 



