ANGLING FOR OUANANICHE 103 



qualities of the Salmo salar, and yet I deem my summer outing in- 

 complete and marred unless I finish it with a cast for this worthy 

 scion of his royal progenitor. So I have journeyed from the Hum- 

 ber and the Esquimaux, down the Straits of Belle Isle and Gulf of 

 the St. Lawrence, up to Roberval, to meet my guides, resting not 

 until at the Cinquieme Chute I slept upon a bed of balsam and pine 

 that laughed to scorn all couches of down. What of the ouana- 

 niche ? This is the testimony 1 give, as I have heretofore written it: 

 " 'This is no denizen of still and stagnant water, no poltroon of 

 running waters, nursing his strength in cowardly ambush, lying in 

 wait beneath lily pads, or lurking in weeds for the victim to pass, 

 upon which he will ruthlessly prey ; no savage monster, patterned 

 after crocodile, with cruel fangs filling a gavial muzzle to devour 

 his victim, who, once impaled upon bait or spoon, cowardly comes 

 to strand or canoe like some great bully called to stand by pure 

 pluck and not physique. No ! the ouananiche fights as if he would 

 pluck forth the weapon that has stabbed him and with it turn and 

 attack his assailant. Up in the air six or seven times, high and low, 

 shaking his head to expel the hook, with wit and cunning tugging 

 at the line deep under water until you fairly feel the barb tear the 

 flesh at the end, rising to the surface and thrashing the water until 

 the line is one inextricable tangle, so goes the battle on. Let no one 

 relax his vigilance or abate one jot of effort until the ouananiche be 

 suspended on the balance, or else a deep-drawn breath and a great 

 struggle with yourself will attest the ignominious end. This foe 

 lives in the rushing floods, under falls where the rainbow forever 

 gleams in the sun, amid eddies circling down the foaming tide 

 where in the whirl of tumultuous waters, current neutralizes current 

 and there encircled by a ring of turbulent waves the pools form ; 

 there with muscles always in motion, turning into pliant steel, and 

 at all times keenly vigilant and alert, never at rest, does the ouana- 

 niche get form, color, strength, and courage. Flashing through the 

 foam, through the seething waters as they tumultuously pour down 

 rocky gorge and pass, over precipitous falls leaping high up the 

 fall and ascending against its mighty power there the "survival 

 of the fittest " working to perfect end in natural selection, the oua- 

 naniche gets his superb development of form and muscle, with the 

 gift of indomitable courage. As the salmon fisherman kills the 

 lordly Salmo salar weighing from fifteen to sixteen pounds with a 



