106 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



to find that my last year's guides were again at 

 my service. I wished no better, and I was 

 nattered by their salutation and their assurance 

 that they wished to render service to no more 

 patient angler. No one of the party had reason 

 to murmur at the men assigned him. All seemed 

 equally expert with paddle and setting pole, and 

 all, with a single exception, could gaff his fish at 

 the right moment and with mathematical pre- 

 cision. If they occasionally missed, and, by a 

 false stroke, lost their prize, it is only what some- 

 times happens to the best and wisest in every de- 

 partment of life. What a " raree show " for an 

 admiring world would that man be who had never 

 blundered ! Of some of the mistakes made in gaf- 

 fing, and of the effect of these mistakes upon the 

 mild-tempered gentlemen who were the victims of 

 them, I shall have something to say hereafter 

 only remarking now, in passing, that skill in gaffing 

 is considered the highest accomplishment of an 

 Indian guide. I have seen feats of skill by gaffers 

 which were marvelous in their lightning-like ra- 

 pidity and magical dexterity. The Indian is at no 

 time so wholly an Indian as when, with flashing 

 eye and distended nostril with every nerve strung 

 for the work before him, and with attitude as fixed 

 and immovable as a marble statue lie is await- 

 ing his opportunity to gaff his fish. It is the poise 



