THE BLACK-BASSE. 319 



not touch the most tempting bait, nor are they fit .for 

 food even were it otherwise, but they may be taken with 

 the rod from the commencement of the proper season 

 till the cold weather begins, when they can only be ob- 

 tained by means of the net. 



During June and July they will not only take the 

 minnow or the "shiner," but rise freely to the fly, and 

 so long as they are in the humour to take this, no true 

 fisherman would think of trying anything else. The 

 best and most successful flies, according to my own 

 experience, are the following : 



Body of scarlet wool, ribbed with silver ; with two 

 pairs of wings, one of silver pheasant, the other pair of 

 scarlet ibis; or, 



Scarlet wool body, with wings composed of two white 

 feathers from the goose, and under wings of the same 

 dyed scarlet. Either of these flies may be varied by 

 the substitution of very light mottled turkey feather 

 wings. 



With these two I have enjoyed many splendid days' 

 sport in the Niagara, anchored in a scow on the bar of 

 the river : a soft warm air gently rippling the surface of 

 the water; the blue Ontario stretching to the horizon on 

 the one hand ; and on the other a lovely reach of seven 

 miles up stream, the lofty wooded banks terminating in 

 the cedar-sprinkled heights of Queenstown, and the dark 



