The Kejimkujik Monster 



it in the new fireplace, and get a great deal of satisfaction 

 out of giving the old rascal a brand-new experience. 



Next day we made ready for the tournament with the 

 crafty and legendary Salvelinus fontinalis mastodonus. 

 I put together my five-and-a-half ounce nine-foot rod 

 and rigged it with a salmon reel, salmon line and leader. 

 We took with us a split-ash pack-basket having a canvas 

 cover, as a creel, and a book of salmon-flies. Paddling 

 across the overflowed meadows to the mouth of the Ke- 

 jimkujik River, a distance of half a mile, we assiduously 

 fished all the pools in which this monster trout had been 

 reported. We caught a number of big fish. As I was 

 using a fly something over two inches long with a silver 

 tinsel body, decorated with a pheasant and jungle-cock 

 wing (which I had tied myself), only a big trout could 

 get the lure in his mouth. After sundown we gave it 

 up and paddled back to camp. 



That evening I wandered over to discuss the subject 

 once more with old Ma-tee-o. He was taciturn and 

 moody, but finally volunteered this cryptic prophecy : 



" No man catch 'im and kill 'im till all white men go 

 'way." 



" Where will they go, Ma-tee-o ?" I amusedly asked. 



" Back to Boston," he grunted. 



That ended the interview. 



For four days following we tried each of the pools in 

 turn. It was fine fun, fine weather, and great fishing, 

 but no monster trout showed up. On the fifth day the 

 sun was so hot by ten o'clock that we quit fishing, and the 

 blackflies not being yet much in evidence, we went 

 ashore with our lunch-basket at the old tenting-ground 

 below Arthur's Ledges. We lazed around till lunch- 

 time in such shade as the budding birches meagrely 

 tendered. 



As I idly lay on the moss, my eye caught a slight move- 



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