70 THROUGH CANADA 



nearest thing to it in dry entomology. It was an 



size and unanointed, for like the foolish virgins 



1 had brought no oil with me. I whipped it through 

 the air in the direction of the rising fish, and a couple 

 of casts brought it on the exact drift. With perkily 

 erect wings it floated onward, and the moment it 

 covered the fish it disappeared in an accomplished 

 break, as if the Muskoka trout was an old practi- 

 tioner in the floating fly business. On tightening up 

 the line, the usual resistance followed, and in due 

 course the fish was creeled. I got five handsome 

 trout and lost two or three more. There were some 

 nice pounders amongst them. Above two pounds 

 weight, they do not seem disposed to patronize 

 the fly. 



The lumbering industry has injured many of 

 the Canadian trout streams. The periodical floods 

 caused by the opening of the dams are most injurious 

 to the trout fry, and the great log rafts that are 

 floated down the river scrape the spawning beds and 

 destroy the ova. The buying out of the lumbering 

 interests in Algonquin Park will have a beneficial 

 effect on the angling. 



We camped that night in a shelter on the banks 

 of the river. The weather again mended, and the 

 sky cleared. Hungry as hawks, we sat down to our 

 evening meal of trout fried in the ranger fashion, 

 an art in which Mark was an adept. Whilst the 

 light still lingered I watched the beavers in the river, 



