310 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



confounded flies, whose attacks since I had ceased to be 

 employed became more noticeable ; in truth, if it were pos- 

 sible, I doubt not that I should have liked to saddle the boy 

 with his absence being the cause of my mishap. After sev- 

 eral times shouting his name, he at length appeared, hat in 

 hand, bare-headed, with a smile of child-like satisfaction on 

 his face that, even in my irate state, I had not the heart to 

 destroy. To my inquiry where he had been, with a look of 

 satisfaction he informed me he had found and harried a 

 nest, producing his hat full of the stolen treasures. After 

 giving him a lecture on the impropriety of such a course, 

 and the probabilities of his being devoured by wolves and 

 bears, or even cannibals, if he left my side, I could not help 

 making an inspection of what his hat contained. Truly, 

 he had a hatful, for upward of a dozen pale, cinnamon- 

 blotched eggs, a trifle larger than those of the domestic 

 pigeon, lay at the bottom. The nest and parent bird, from 

 description, left me in no doubt that Master Jock had de- 

 prived some luckless rock ptarmigan (Lagopus albus] of 

 her embryo brood ; and, after lecturing him on the enormi- 

 ty of such a proceeding, and begging a share of the spoils, 

 we started for the place of rendezvous. 



The evening after my first day's sport was not an idle 

 one, for though the body inclined to rest, full well I knew 

 that on my exertions in fly-tying depended the sport of to- 

 morrow. To make a good fly requires not only skill, but 

 patience and knowledge, with a correct taste in the blend- 

 ing of colors, a strong hand to make secure work, and the 

 employment of the best materials. How frequently indif- 

 ferent hooks and gut are purchased because they are a tri- 

 fle cheaper ! but if we could foresee the severe ordeal that 

 may some day be in store for our tackle, and the splendid 

 fish that may be lost through this parsimony, we should 

 be better suited with half the quantity at double the cost. 



