A TRIP TO THE LA VAL. 75 



to's, but burns, and I never again shall despise a thing 

 because it is small. Compelled to surrender all hope of 

 sleep, I gathered the dying embers of the fire, and add- 

 ing fuel, drove away the pests, while, at the same time, 

 with infinite relish, I scorched our men, who, to my pre- 

 vious disgust, had been sleeping during my sufferings as 

 though they were in paradise. 



By the earliest dawn I had waded into the river and 

 made the discovery that fish, unlike the proverbial birds, 

 will not take the fly too early. Just before the sunlight 

 tinged the mountain-tops, they, thinking to provide their 

 own breakfasts, provided me with mine, so that, when 

 the time came to leave off, I had taken twenty fish 

 weighing over forty pounds. 



Immediately after the meal was over, we continued 

 our ascent as rapidly as possible, dreading another expe- 

 rience such as we had endured the previous night, and 

 hurried on to reach our regular camping-ground and 

 pitch a proper tent. On the way, I only had time to 

 catch fifteen, weighing thirty-seven pounds, the largest 

 being of three pounds and a half, and late in the after- 

 noon hailed with pleasure the information that at last 

 we had reached the spot that was to be to us for some 

 time our home. It was a beautiful location ; the stream, 

 by a sudden bend, forming a low, long point of land, 

 nearly level, which had been, by previous camping par- 

 ties, entirely denuded of underbrush and partly of trees. 

 In front, midway in the river, was a large flat rock, 

 beyond which, extending to the further shore, and just 

 fairly within casting distance, lay a deep, black pool. 

 A dead tree leaned over this rock from our side of the 



