428 



Salmon -Fishing. 



in depth. Lazell, with his wad- 

 ing-boots, stalked triumphantly 

 across, while the cook and I 

 went down a quarter of a mile 

 to cross upon a tree which, some 

 years ago, had fallen and formed 

 a natural bridge. There was 

 no path along this wind-swept 

 gorge, and trees were piled upon 

 trees, making many windfalls to 

 be gotten over. At the end of a 

 long half hour we came back to 

 where Lazell was awaiting us. 

 Could we have met the man 

 who said there was a " pleasure 

 in the pathless woods," he would 

 have fared badly. The truth was 

 that the dead-wood of the bridge 

 had broken under our weight, 

 and we were wetter than if we 

 had waded the branch. Often upon this trip we touched, with our rod- 

 cases or gaff, the partridges which unconcernedly flew up and lighted 

 on the lower branches of the trees. We reached the pool, and killed 

 a fish before the canoes arrived. The next morning, Annette, Lazell's 

 gaffer, came tumbling down from a tree where he had been sent to 

 point out where the salmon were lying, and ran to the house yelling 

 as if crazy, "Mr. Lazell has got his first fish, and he's a whopper !" 

 Sure enough he had on a fish, and it commenced sulking at once. 

 He had lighted his pipe and taken his seat just where one of Mr. 

 Reynolds's friends, in 1873, took his breakfast while holding his 

 sulking fish with one hand. Having gone to the pool with my light 

 bamboo, to which he was unaccustomed, he was unprepared for 

 heavy fighting, as he felt insecure and had a dread of breaking it. 

 Now and then, by rapping on the metal butt of the rod with a stone, 

 the vibrations of the line would start the fish into making a short run 

 and lazy jump. The men all put the fish at thirty-five pounds, and 

 they are rarely more than a pound or two out of the way. Soon the 

 fish began quietly working for the deepest part of the pool, and in 



THE PATIENT ANGLER. 



