442 



Salmon -Fishing. 



The fish was just at the canoe, and the greenheart was taking the 

 last possible ounce of strain. The line could not run out fast enough 

 to relieve the rod, and we awaited its snapping. Equal to the emer- 

 gency, Douglass, remembering an old trick of Curtis's, threw the 

 rod behind him, and with reel end in the water and the tip ring rest- 

 ing on the edge of the canoe, the line ran safely and swiftly out. 

 Douglass then tired and killed his fish, which weighed fifteen pounds 

 — about the average of the St. John fish. 



The non-angling reader by this time surmises that the only way 

 to bring a salmon to the gaff is to tire him, by keeping a constant 

 steady strain upon him, with the shortest practicable line. The 

 greatest dexterity and skill of the angler and his men are required 

 to keep the canoe always in such a relation to the fish as to make 

 this possible. Half your score depends upon the quickness of 



the men, who must, if you are 

 on shore, be so near you with 

 the canoe that if the fish starts 

 down a rapid, they can take you 

 in upon the instant, and follow 

 him. How patiently would our 

 faithful fellows sit on the cross- 

 bar of the canoe, and only now 

 and then, when the flies and 

 mosquitoes were unusually trou- 

 blesome, break silence with " I 

 don't care if I do take a little o' 

 yer fly-ile? 



To give the general reader 

 an idea of the way in which anglers make up their scores for dis- 

 tribution among their friends, we give an old one, which still stands 

 among the best made in America : 



F. Curtis's Score of Salmon-Fishing, York River, Lower Canada, for one evening and 

 the following day, 187 1. 



TWO HOURS, THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 6. 



i Fish, 1 8 pounds weight fly, Jock Scott. 



•i " 22 " ' ; " Robin. 



i " 25 " " " Robin. 



1 " 26 " ' : " Silver Doctor. 



"A LITTLE O' YER FLY-ILE. 



