182 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



him to generally lead all of us in the count. An 

 essay on the advantages of this virtue, in every 

 department of life, would be appropriate just here. 

 But it would be a work of supererogation so far as 

 my readers are concerned ; for those who have fol- 

 lowed me thus far through these rambling notes 

 must possess the virtue in superabundance. 



We had studied salmon pools in all their aspects, 

 externally their surroundings, their apparent 

 depths, their currents, their counter-currents, their 

 eddies and the particular spots within their circum- 

 ference where salmon would be most likely to con- 

 gregate. But we had never been able to peer down 

 into their hidden depths to see the fish in their 

 favorite haunts. To be sure, in passing up and 

 down the river, now and then one would cross the 

 vision like a silver ray. But, as a rule, they never 

 came into view, even where we knew they lay in 

 great numbers within easy cast. During the day 

 they were hidden by the ripples caused by the cur- 

 rents and by the dark depths of the water, as se- 

 curely as if they were " in the deep bosom of the 

 ocean buried." There was but one mode by which 

 we could obtain the view we coveted, to wit : by 

 the use of the flambeaux, which the Indians use in 

 their night-spearing forays, and by which, properly 

 placed in the canoe, the water, to its lowest depths, 

 becomes perfectly illuminated, and every object, to 



