288 CANADIAN TUEF KECOLLECTIONS 



A TRUE FISHING STORY 



A prominent resident of Toronto, half a century ago, 

 was Colonel 'Hara, a retired British Army officer. He 

 was a thorough all round sportsman, and his favorite 

 pastime was fishing. There were few streams between 

 Lake Ontario and the northern lakes which he had not 

 sampled and but few men were as skilful as he with rod 

 and fly. The following story told me about the Colonel 

 is worth repeating; 



A brother officer who had served in the same regiment 

 was visiting in this country and as he was also an enthus- 

 iastic disciple of Isaac Walton the Colonel invited him 

 to join in some of his fishing trips. The offer was ac- 

 cepted and the two veterans had many days of splendid 

 sport in the streams north of Toronto. One day they 

 were fishing near Priceville, in Grey county. The weather 

 was sultry and the mosquitoes were out in battalions. 

 The fishing, however, was good and the Colonel was sat- 

 isfied to suffer the attacks of the pests. Not so the 

 Major, who was waving his arms to drive off the skeeters 

 and in doing so did more splashing of the water than 

 was allowable. The Colonel stood it for a while, but 

 finally his patience was exhausted and he called out: 

 "Major, what is the matter with you this morning? You 

 are making as much noise as if you were fishing with a 

 sinker and float. Surely you are not demoralized by a 

 few flies?" The remark nettled the Major, whose temper 

 and liver had not been improved by a twenty years ' resi- 

 dence in India, so he answered with some warmth: 



** Colonel, I can stand these d flies as well as you or 



any other man, and you can take up the challenge if you 

 want to." After a few peppery words a bet of a basket 

 of * * fiz " was made, the wine to be used during their out- 

 ings, and the test decided upon was as follows: after 



