A FIGHT WITH A TROUT. 



By CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER, 



AUTHOR OF "MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN," "IN THE WU-DERNESS," " BADDECK," ETC. 



TROUT-FISHING in the Adirondacks would be a more attract- 

 ive pastime than it is, but for the popular notion of its danger. 

 The trout is a retiring and harmless animal, except when he 

 is aroused and forced into a combat ; and then his agility, fierceness, 

 and vindictiveness become apparent. No one who has studied the 

 excellent pictures representing men in an open boat, exposed to 

 the assaults of long, enraged trout flying at them through the open 

 air with open mouth, ever ventures with his rod upon the lonely 

 lakes of the forest without a certain terror, or ever reads of the 

 exploits of daring fishermen without a feeling of admiration for their 

 heroism. Most of their adventures are thrilling, and all of them 

 are, in narration, more or less unjust to the trout; in fact, the 

 object of them seems to be to exhibit, at the expense of the trout, 

 the shrewdness, the skill, and the muscular power of the sportsman. 

 My own simple story has few of these recommendations. 



We had built our bark camp one summer, and were staying 

 on one of the popular lakes of the Saranac region. It would be 

 a very pretty region, if it were not so flat, if the margins of the 

 lakes had not been flooded by dams at the outlets, — which have 

 killed the trees, and left a rim of ghastly dead-wood, like the 

 swamps of the under- world pictured by Dora's bizarre pencil, — and 

 if the pianos at the hotels were in tune. It would be an excellent 

 sporting region also (for there is water enough), if the fish com- 

 missioners would stock the waters, and if previous hunters had 



