SOME FOREIGN RELATIVES 119 



sea-trout line and twisted gut instead of gimp 

 trace. The bait was a six-inch phantom. It should 

 have been much larger for the sport of the place, 

 and the boat ought at least to have afforded one 

 an opportunity of standing up to cast between the 

 weeds in the orthodox fashion. 



Having taken a fourteen-stone friend, who sat in 

 the narrow end seat holding a line in his hand and 

 dodging the cramp as best he might by uneasily 

 shifting from time to time trailing, in point of fact, 

 in its most primitive form I occupied the slender 

 thwart between the boatman and my companion. For 

 a while I tried the experiment sitting of casting from 

 right to left, but as the boatman was afraid that 

 he would be caught, I had sometimes to descend 

 to trailing with my tackle, and this became a 

 chronic nuisance by reason of the numerous foulings. 

 I may add that this rough method of trailing is the 

 common mode of fishing on all American inland 

 waters, and even the grand lake trout are caught in 

 this way. The fish hook themselves, and if one is of 

 size the man rows ashore, however great the distance 

 may be, and you drag the captive along bodily. The 

 tackle is so strong that there is no reason why a fish 

 of a couple of hundred pounds, with patience, may 

 not be safely beached in this way. 



