PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 4:7 



where from $35 to $60 in New York, or from $15 

 to $30 in St. John), an India-rubber reel ($15), an 

 oil-boiled silk line, 300 or 400 feet in length ($8 

 to $12), a dozen double gut leaders with single gut 

 droppers ($6), five or six dozen assorted salmon flies 

 ($6 a dozen in New York or less than half that 

 price in St. John), and a steel gaff ($2). The rods 

 and lines may be duplicated if "expense is no 

 object ; " but only by some unforeseen accident or 

 inexcusable carelessness need either the one or the 

 other give out. No one is more merciless with 

 rod and line than myself, and yet neither failed 

 me during our expedition. Instances of failure, 

 however, to some of the party (but not from any 

 want of skill) occurred, and under circumstances 

 which sorely tried the saintly tempers of these 

 unfortunate victims of misplaced confidence. But 

 as a rule, any strain beyond what a moderately well 

 made rod will bear safely would almost certainly 

 result in the loss of your fish ; and the oiled line, if 

 not imperceptibly defective, has the capacity to 

 resist five times the pressure which should ever be 

 employed to kill a salmon. Its great weight is 

 given to it, not to render it secure merely, but 

 rather to adapt it the better for casting. 



In regard to supplies, whatever is needful can be 

 better secured, and much more moderately, at 

 Quebec or St. John than at any point this side the 



