INTRODUCTION XXI 



bonca River ! What if the fish were somewhat scarce, 

 was it not worth all the trouble, especially when, perad- 

 venture fishing with two or three flies, we sometimes had 

 a brace of ouananiche on our cast at the same time ? 

 Then it was excitement indeed ! One up, one down, or 

 perchance it might be both of them out of the water to- 

 gether, their shimmering sides glistening in the sun 

 amidst the spray of the splashing waters, as burnished 

 silver salvers shining through the rainbows of a water- 

 fall. And then the excitement of struggling up those 

 deadly rapids above or below the fearful cascades of that 

 furious river ! the delight of landing, with the greatest 

 skill, from our canoe, on some dangerous rock beneath 

 the waterfall, and thence casting the fly in the brou the 

 white, creamy foam of the first eddy to see its white 

 and foaming surface broken for a second only, and then 

 to feel something like a young shark tearing at the end 

 of the line ! But have we not been through all this to- 

 gether ? Have we not shot rapids, camped out in bear- 

 infested islands, performed almost impossible portages, 

 travelled for days through the solitude of the mighty and 

 eternal forests ? Ah ! this it is which brings the advan- 

 tages of ouananiche fishing far ahead of all other fishing 

 in the mind of the really enthusiastic sportsman. It is 

 the strange and mighty communings with Nature, in- 

 duced by the dangers and difficulties through which he 

 passes, which to the angler elevate what in other lands 

 may be looked upon but as a trivial sport into a noble 

 pursuit one of which a fortnight's enjoyment is, with 

 all its perils and excitements, worth a month on the best 

 salmon river that Scotland or Ireland can boast. I have 

 fished with many companions in Scotland, in Norway, in 

 Ireland, in Spain, in England, in India, in Asia Minor, 

 in Turkey, in Egypt, in Canada, in British Columbia, 



