PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



an agreeable one, and we were soon pushing our 

 way from Island Pond to a famous brook and lake 

 some five miles distant. The day was intensely 

 hot, and we despaired of success unless we should 

 have the luck to strike a " spring-hole." This, after 

 hours of seeking, we failed to find in the brook ; 

 and the lake (whose shores were composed of mud 

 and quick-sand) gave no better promise. But as 

 the sun-glare began to pass from the face of the 

 water, trout were observed to " break " in a narrow 

 circle a few rods distant. There was the " spring- 

 hole " we were seeking. But how to reach it ! A 

 log-raft was speedily extemporised, and we had our 

 reward. My "leader" was strung with five flies, 

 and in six casts I killed eighteen trout, weighing 

 nineteen pounds and a half. At one throw I took 

 three which aggregated five pounds and a half. I 

 preserve it as a memento of a happy day. 



With this " brown hackle," without intermission, 

 I killed one hundred and nine small trout in four 

 hours in a pond near Hacquette Falls. I handle it 

 as gently as a relic, not alone because it is the me- 

 mento of an unusual achievement, but because the 

 sight of it brings up vividly before me the beauti- 

 ful lake where the trout lay ; its crystal waters ; 

 the glinting of its ruffled surface as the bright sun 

 fell upon it ; the densely- wooded hills which encir- 

 cled it ; the soughing of the tall pines as the sum- 



