422 Salmon -Fishing. 



cents at Gaspe buys quite a large basket of this exquisitely flavored 

 wild berry. 



I have been thus minute in describing our surroundings, because 

 I believe more comfortable and complete arrangements are found on 

 no other stream. It is all very well to camp out under an open 

 "lean-to" or tent, and exceedingly healthful and enjoyable, but we 

 rather enjoyed this comfortable way of living. Standing for six hours 

 or more daily, while throwing a fly or killing a fish, is hard work for 

 one of sedentary habits, and gives enough exercise and oxygen to 

 make one wish for good living and quarters ; and with this open-air 

 life one may indulge his appetite with impunity if he can get the 

 food, for his digestion and assimilation are at their best. 



The difference between the temperature at midday and midnight in 

 the mountainous regions along the Gaspe salmon-streams is notable. 

 One day last season, the air at nine a. m. was 74 , at two p. m. 84 , 

 and at half-past seven p. m. 51° We were anxious to get approx- 

 imately the temperature of the water of these northern streams 

 to compare with the water of streams farther south, which had been 

 stocked with young salmon by Professor Baird, United States Fish 

 Commissioner, and so made the best observations possible with a 

 couple of ordinary thermometers. At the bottom of one pool in the 

 York, near the mouth of the Mississippi Creek, which is a roaring 

 little branch of the York coming down from the snow of the neigh- 

 boring mountains, the water at midday was but 40^° Fahrenheit, 

 while the air was 78 . In other pools on this river we found the 

 temperature at noon to be 44 at the bottom and 44^° at the sur- 

 face, with the air at 6o°. This was well up among the mountains, 

 thirty-five miles above the mouth of the river. Lower down the 

 stream, 48 bottom, 48 >^ ° surface ; and sometimes after a very warm 

 day, 47^4° to 48^° at eight o'clock p. m. Ten or fifteen miles dis- 

 tant, upon the Dartmouth, which flows through a less mountainous 

 country and has longer and more quiet pools and less shaded 

 banks, we found the pools varying from 55 to 59 when the air 

 was 6o° to 70 . 



Upon the first morning of our arrival, we did not get up at three 

 a. m., when the day was just dawning, and order up our men to get 

 breakfast. We had been in northern latitudes before, and took the 

 precaution to hang our rubber overcoats over the windows to darken 



