A BED OF BOUGHS. 175 



every one of them. The coldness and purity of the 

 water evidently made them that much earlier. The 

 game laws of^ the State protect the fish after Septem- 

 ber first, proceeding upon the theory that its spawn- 

 ing season is later than that, as it is in many cases, 

 but not in all, as we found out. 



The fish are small in these streams, seldom weigh- 

 ing over a few ounces. Occasionally a large one is 

 seen of a pound or pound and a half weight. I re- 

 member one such, as black as night, that ran under 

 a black rock. But I remember much more distinctly 

 a still larger one that I caught and lost one eventful 

 day. 



I had him on my hook ten minutes, and actually 

 got my thumb in his mouth, and yet he escaped. 



It was only the over-eagerness of the sportsman, I 

 imagined I could hold him by the teeth. 



The place where I struck him was a deep well- 

 hole and I was perched upon a log that spanned it 

 ten or twelve feet above the water. The situation 

 was all the more interesting because I saw no pos- 

 sible way to land my fish; I could not lead him 

 ashore, and my frail tackle could not be trusted to 

 ift him sheer from that pit to my precarious perch ; 

 what should I do? call for help? but no help wa* 

 near. I had a revolver in my pocket and might 

 have shot him through and through, but that novel 

 proceeding did not occur tc me until it was too late. 

 I would have taken a Sam Patch leap into the water 

 wid have wrestled with my antagonist in his own 



