THE THOUSAND ISLES. 195 



beautiful natural grove, we set to work to build a Hie and 

 prepare our fish for dinner. The pleasantest arrange- 

 ment connected with this fishing is that each boat is 

 provided with a basket of good cold fare, a frying-pan 

 and the necessary means of cooking ; and in the middle 

 of the day it is customary for several to meet at an 

 appointed island, and for the fishermen to have a jolly 

 dinner. Although we were first to arrive, our com 

 panions were not long behind us, and the best fish, 

 especially the black bass, were selected, cleaned, split 

 open, and fried in the grease tried out of a few pieces of 

 salt pork. Our provisions were combined and made 

 quite a handsome picnic set-out, rendered more accept- 

 able to our sharpened appetite by a few glasses of iced 

 champagne. Of course we had our stories to tell : how 

 skillfully we had landed this fish, or how unfortunately 

 we had lost that; and one man, who had struck and 

 almost landed a mascallonge, was agitated with mingled 

 happiness and despondency. The days were long, our 

 boatmen had had a hard tug of it, the shade was grateful, 

 the champagne refreshing, our cigars excellent, and con- 

 sequently no one was hurried. The wind, however, kept 

 increasing, and after a couple of hours, pleasantly passed, 

 we once more embarked and bid each other farewell till 

 night. 



My boatman struck well in toward the Canadian shore ; 

 but although we crossed places where he had had won- 

 derful success on many a previous occasion, and of which 

 there were extraordinary stories of mascallonge, our 

 luck had deserted us. However, perseverance was re- 

 warded; suddenly my hand-line was taughtened as 



