THE BASSES: FRES H-W ATER AND MARINE 



to the old boulder that stands, sentinel-like, on the 

 upper and western side of this rapid I speak of. 

 Climbing up, I perched myself on the extreme top 

 of the rock, un jointed my limbs, and stretched 

 them out with a feeling of comfortable ease and 

 unrestraint to be appreciated only by a wading 

 fisherman who for some hours has been feet- fum- 

 bling on the stony and uneven bed of a river which 

 is made up of deep holes and a ten-horse-power 

 current. 



" After resting a moment or two I arranged 

 my cast, intending to whip the eddies made by 

 the boiling waters on the lower edges of the rapid. 

 I had never as yet had any luck in the strength 

 of a stream such as this, and wisely, I thought 

 then, chose the sides and tail end of it. I looped 

 on a large point fly, to which, in the paucity of my 

 knowledge of the names of flies then as now, I 

 had given the name of hornet. You will remember 

 it, Gills, if you can recall our last trip to Perkio- 

 men Dam, when we saw the hornets flying around 

 us, and occasionally falling into the water, where the 

 eager bass soon made use of them. You will, per- 

 haps, remember that we also made use of a tolerable 

 imitation, a golden and brown bug we found in our 

 fly-books. Well, I put on the same fly on this occa- 

 sion, and a big gray hackle along with it. 



'' Tossing my line carelessly into the current, 

 more for the purpose of getting the kinks out of 



96 



