258 ACCESSIBLE FIELD SPORTS. 



attacks of those confounded pests, the black flies, which 

 generally make their appearance the second week of 

 June, when woe betide you ; for if you are compelled 

 to submit to their persecutions, your tortures from the 

 results might turn your hair grey in a night, or drive 

 you crazy for the remainder of life. No one can 

 sympathise with the unfortunate Egyptians so well as 

 he who has visited the Maine fishing-regions in the 

 fly season ; getting rid of the Israelites, if they took 

 the plague with them, was under any circumstances 

 most desirable. 



Before leaving Upton for the Wilds, as by this name 

 your future resting-places may well be called, we would 

 revert to the practice of throwing sawdust that comes 

 from mills into the water. Now, although some may 

 not be aware of it, there is nothing more destructive 

 to trout and salmon than these minute particles of 

 timber. The fish, as they rest head up stream, imbibe 

 them into their mouths, whence they pass into the 

 gills and stomach, ultimately causing disease and death. 

 When this is known to be the case, would it not 

 be well to insist that this debris should otherwise 

 be disposed of, which may, without much labour or 

 inconvenience, be accomplished by fire, after trans- 

 porting it to a suitable distance. Hendrick Hudson, 

 the first explorer of the magnificent river which bears 



