xviii INTRODUCTION 



afford a somewhat hazardous foothold. It was situated 

 in the deep and smooth but swift-running water at the 

 head of a furious and broken rapid, for it was this smooth 

 and swift unbroken water that previous experience had 

 taught me was the principal home of the ouananiche, or, 

 at all events, the place whence he was most likely to be 

 lured by the angler's skill. Having found the fly to be 

 useless, my rod was armed with a good-sized phantom 

 minnow ; for size, I found, was required, on account of 

 the extra weight in the metal at the head, which caused 

 it to sink. The color did not so much matter on that 

 particular day, as both a brown and a blue minnow 

 literally had the hooks torn off on several occasions by 

 the savage way in which the fish, when hooked, would 

 shake their heads, much as a bulldog will shake a rat. 

 This naturally required occasional stoppages for repairs, 

 which were executed roughly but swiftly with thread 

 and cobbler's wax, and when the latter was lost in the 

 river, with thread alone. My minnow was mounted on 

 a single gut trace, and my modus operandi was as fol- 

 lows : I invariably threw my line straight across the 

 stream; then, after allowing a second or two to let it 

 sink, turning the point of my rod down-stream with a 

 steady but continuous motion, I kept the bait moving 

 and spinning until the force of the current had carried 

 it away so that it hung straight down-stream at right 

 angles to the point of my rod. Then, while I continued 

 moving the point of the rod, but now in the direction 

 of the shore, I commenced pulling in the line in the 

 Devonshire fashion by a shuttle -like motion with the 

 left hand, thus making the bait travel in little jerks up 

 the stream again. And it was almost invariably at the 

 moment after the end of the swing, just when the min- 

 now had commenced its journey shore wards and up- 



