THE SALMON FISHEK. 81 



lead. I do not know of so likely a place for kinder- 

 garten practice as the lower Kestigouche from its 

 confluence with the Metapedia, past the club house 

 and railroad bridge to tidewater. It affords unlim- 

 ited flailing room, and there are no obtruding trees 

 to pick up flying gut-lengths, no rough water, no 

 snags, and no ugly pitches ; yet of the scores of fish- 

 ermen who congregate there daily during the fish- 

 ing season, calling themselves anglers, how few are 

 successful ! How many fish are hooked and lost ! 



On w r hat the Scotchmen call " a wicked river/' the 

 work is more exacting. There are occasions and sit- 

 uations where the capture of a salmon is truly a test 

 of strategic ability, and not of mere mechanical ma- 

 nipulation, and I may much doubt if any preceptor, 

 by book or example, can impart the genius necessary 

 to bring a fish to gaff. The Godbout, and the like 

 Laurentian rivers, whose whole length is a foaming 

 torrent, would make a smooth-water angler turn 

 pale to contemplate as a place to fish. I imagine 

 that the Scotch river Erne, of which Mr. Francis 

 writes so glowingly, is of much the same character 

 " where you must wade, and often deeply, in places 



