414 



WHERE AKE THEY? 



ardent and persevering followers of the " gentle craft ; " and 

 again 



THE THOUSAND ISLANDS 



of the river St. Lawrence, that enchanted spot that the lover 

 of the beautiful revels in as in a dream 



" Sailed through all its bends and windings, 

 Sailed through all its deeps and shallows." 



" This is the region that the angler of the present day con- 

 templates with unmixed satisfaction. * ' * * Our skiff is 

 continually threading its way among these land aquatics, af- 

 fording the most agreeable employment for the hands, en- 

 gagement for the mind, and variety for the eye. Now we 

 are stemming the rapid current of some narrow ' gut,' with a 

 black basse on every fly, and now quietly gliding back into 

 a deep and tranquil basin to relieve our rod of the life that 

 bends it almost to breaking ; now we push out into a wider 

 expanse of water, where the tempting ' shoals ' successively 

 appear swarming with myriads of the finny tribe, and inviting 

 employment for all our equipment and skill, fortunate if both 

 fail not in reciprocating as they ought the multiplying and 

 affectionate attentions of this gamesome fish." 



The black basse of the St. Lawrence equal, if they do not 

 surpass, those of any other water, often giving several of 

 their beautiful leaps before reaching the boat, when taken 

 with the rod and reel. The troller will take basse, pickerel, and 

 perch at the same time, if rigged for the purpose. We once 

 took over seventy basse, pickerel, and perch at the end of a 

 two hundred feet line, to which was attached a two-yard 

 gut-leader with an artificial minnow at the end, and a red-and- 

 white fly at intervals of three feet, in a few hours' trolling 



