SALMON AND TROUT MEMORIES 



hotel (where, by the by, some of the best bottled beer in the 

 State was obtainable), kept by a naturalised German, and 

 situated in the rolling and wooded uplands of Northern Min- 

 nesota. At supper, where a dish of fresh trout finally dispelled 

 my doubts as to their existence, the situation was more fully 

 explained. Close to the hotel were at least a dozen natural 

 springs of the clearest water and of considerable united volume, 

 permanently feeding a stream that ran for some two miles in 

 alternate rapid and pool to the river below. At its head this 

 stream was dammed back into two miniature lakes, where the 

 trout were every season artificially reared, and thence stocked 

 the stream for its whole length to where another dam and pool, 

 with protected outlet, prevented the escape of the fish to the 

 river below. 



Our landlord was a practised fisherman, as I soon found 

 out ; and, moreover, he thoroughly understood the artificial 

 rearing of trout. He was inclined to look with contempt on 

 the fishing capabilities of the parties of town-bred Americans 

 who periodically visited him on fishing picnics. The gentle 

 art of fly-fishing is not generally practised or understood on 

 the banks of the Mississippi. Would his trout rise to the fly ? 

 Certainly they would. What size did they run ? Up to three 

 pounds ; average half a pound. What flies did they take ? 

 Specimens were shown me — three-quarter-inch flies of a size 

 and shape calculated to put down any well-brought-up High- 

 land trout for a week. I had a few Scotch flies with me, and 

 produced them. They were not thought much of, and I held 

 my peace. Evidently Minnesota trout had views of their own 



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