184 I GO A -FISHING. 



The flavor of trout varies in various waters. Where 

 streams run through much low ground and forest, or 

 through bog-land, and where lakes have muddy bottoms, 

 with dead and decaying wood in the water, the fishy in- 

 habitants are apt to have what we call a woody flavor. 

 This is not always the case. I have taken trout of very 

 fine, pure flavor from the worst looking water, but not often. 

 A woody trout, if eaten at all, should be eaten within a few 

 hours after he is taken. It is practically impossible to 

 send such trout to a distant city, or to preserve them in ice 

 for many hours. The unpleasant flavor increases rapidly. 



The best of trout suffer by keeping, even in ice ; and I 

 strongly advise those who go a-fishing in distant parts to 

 kill no more fish than they can eat, and to forego the pleas- 

 ure of sending evidences of their success to friends, who 

 may possibly be convinced of the fish stories they have 

 heard by the sight of the " speckled beauties," but who, 

 if their taste be educated, can not enjoy the result. 



Why should I kill any more trout on that day ? I had 

 five or six pounds, enough for three of us, with the addi- 

 tions to our dinner which Hiram's pack contained, and 

 here was the lake from which we were as sure of taking 

 our breakfast as if it were a kit of salt mackerel. 



So I went up to the head of the lake, where a brook 

 comes in over a white gravel bed, pure and clear and 

 cold, and, lying down on the beach in the soft sunshine, 

 dreamed away the day. The night came on us with 

 clouds, and the sounds of wind in the higher forests on 

 the mountain sides. We made the camp-fire broad and 

 high. Vast pine and birch logs, ten feet long and two 

 feet thick, which with great labor Hiram had cut and 

 rolled together, blazed high in the edge of the forest, and 

 poured a rich light over the lake. Far out on the water 



