528 Sea -Trout Fishing. 



water every way as on a pivot. The draught, with two men aboard, 

 is three to four inches. Buoyant, of elastic frame, unsteady to 

 the lightest touch, endways or sideways, she answers to skillful 

 control like a sentient thing, and throws a clumsy rider like a mus- 

 tang. With her light grace and delicate color, she is the lady of water- 

 craft. The skill of these canoe-men is wonderful, only gained by 

 long practice from early childhood. Nearing the foot of the rapid, 

 while yet in still water, the guide drops the paddle, stands erect with 

 his setting-pole in the extreme stern, his boy in the same attitude 

 at the point of the bow, and studies the eddies and stones intently. 

 In a moment she is swung alongside a rock, her peak thrust just 

 around it across the stream; then, with a mighty drive from the poles, 

 she darts diagonally through the torrent and whirls her tail down- 

 stream, under the lee of another rock a few feet higher up. She is 

 again held, hugging the granite by main force, and edging forward till 

 the beat of the water boiling up astern of her center helps to lift her 

 on, and with another powerful send she shoots across upward again to 

 the next covering point. She threads her intricate way among the 

 bowlders by repetition of these zigzag dashes, sometimes missing the 

 aim and crashing back against a rock, sometimes beaten aside by the 

 pole slipping on the bottom, with the guide's eye quick at every turn, 

 and his muscles steadily braced. The men's pose, alertness, and 

 strength form a study. At times she must be thrust up by sheer power 

 against the dead rush of the torrent, gaining inch by inch. David's 

 cries to his boy rise above the noise of the water — "Pousse! arrete! 

 lance Veau! hale feau! autre bord! pousse, pousse au loin!" Acci- 

 dents occur, but seldom from miscalculation. If a pole should snap 

 while the stress of the flood beats on her, the canoe may be whirled 

 broadside on, and capsized. Then there is a rolling and tumbling 

 among the rocks, struggling for a footing, sometimes with hard bruises, 

 — or if near the foot of the rapid, one may be swept into deep water 

 and must keep a clutch on the point of the canoe till she drifts into 

 shallows. Except in the larger rivers, there is not much danger of 

 drowning. The guides prefer ascending to going down a rapid, as 

 the risk of the canoe getting beyond their control is much less when 

 the water drives against her in sight. They are very cautious, too, 

 to avoid straining or bruising the boat. "You act as if this canoe be- 

 longed to you," David would reproach his boy at a careless movement. 



