PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 179 



low where your fish leads. It would of course be 

 different if wading were possible, but the water 

 is generally too deep for that sort of fishing alto- 

 gether the most artistic and fascinating where 

 practicable. As the General could not wade, he 

 was forced to take to his canoe, which he did with 

 great promptness and dexterity, but not an instant 

 too soon. A delay of the twentieth part of a min- 

 ute would have left him fishless and mortified. 

 When thus again master of the situation, the con- 

 test was resumed by both parties with great vigor. 

 No angler since the days of Nimrod ever played a 

 fish more skillfully, or more fully enjoyed the exer- 

 cise ; but it was not until after a two hours' fight, 

 extending over a distance of more than a mile, that 

 he was brought to gaff. He weighed thirty-four 

 pounds, and was the harbinger of many others like 

 him captured in these pools during the period we 

 remained at the Forks. 



I repeated a hundred times during my first day 

 here what the poet says of those athirst in mid- 

 ocean : " Water, water every where, but not a drop 

 to drink." The cause of this despairing cry on my 

 part arose from the fact that while salmon were 

 leaping all around me I could not, by any art or 

 cunning at my command, lure one to my fly. At 

 least twenty large fish were thus disporting them- 

 selves within easy cast, but no change of fly and 



