192 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



signs of gold, they thought, and glittering particles 

 that looked like gold, but they had only "their 

 labor for their pains." Since then this young man 

 had been in California and had acquired an expe- 

 rience which he believed would render his present 

 search a success. He had chemicals with him to 

 test the " golden sands " of this new El Dorado, 

 and he pushed on, full of high expectations. But, 

 alas! for the mutability of all human hopes, he 

 returned in six days a disappointed man. He suc- 

 ceeded, he said, in getting within five miles of the 

 golden mountain, but his high-heeled boots behaved 

 so badly that he could not prosecute his search ! 

 The Indians who accompanied him said he became 

 frightened. But, however that may be, he certainly 

 failed, and had his journey from the far West to 

 the head-waters of the Cascapedia for nothing. He 

 returned, like many another gold-seeker, the victim 

 of misplaced confidence. There are those who still 

 have faith in this old tradition, and the search will 

 be kept up so long as unreasoning credulity remains 

 to vex the race. 



Before " reeling up " these disjointed and weari- 

 some notes, as I shall do very soon, it may not 

 be deemed out of place to proffer just a word 

 of counsel to those who may, at some not distant 

 day in the golden future, have the happiness to 

 " go-a-fishing," if not in the Cascapedia, in some 



