14 FISHING GOSSIP. 



lake then, and Tom, besides, was not much in that 

 way. Still the landing-net could be dimly descried 

 in the distance in operation from time to time ; and, 

 combining these facts and conjectures together, he 

 concluded there was a new fishing dodge of some 

 kind " in the wind." As a last resource, it occurred 

 to him that the examination of Tom's boat might 

 throw some light on the subject. Some traces of the 

 slaughter might be found where the deed was done. 

 When he saw Tom depart for the night, he accord- 

 ingly descended to the boat, and there discovered, to 

 his surprise, not only fragments, but a living speci- 

 men of the Collaugh rhua Anglice, the " red-hag" 

 the veritable stone loach of systematic writers, 

 swimming about merrily in the bilge-water of the 

 ill-caulked craft, and which doubtless found its 

 way there accidentally from Tom's " kettle of snipes." 

 The secret was now out, and soon to become a fatal 

 fact to the fly-fishing of the district, as will appear 

 hereafter. 



Before proceeding to the practical details of this 

 paper, I may be permitted to offer a few general 

 remarks on the appearance, haunts, and habits of the 

 Great Lake trout, or Salmo ferox, to which these 

 details apply. Into the science of the subject I shall 

 not enter, though well aware of the wide and seduc- 

 tive field of observation which the natural history of 

 the fish opens to the amateur essayist. But the sub- 



