252 OTHEK FISH AND GAME 



Nowhere, probably, within easy distance of civili- 

 zation, is there such magnificent trout fishing to be 

 had as is offered in the Grand Lake Jacques Cartier 

 and in the upper half of the splendid stream that con- 

 veys its surplus water to the St. Lawrence. John 

 Burroughs has made memorable the fishing in these 

 waters in his Locusts and Wild Honey. From the 

 chapter on " The Halcyon in Canada " I extract a 

 charming description of the killing of a big trout by 

 its author's fishing companion. Mr. Burroughs says : 



"In the meantime I skipped about from boulder to boulder 

 as the fish worked this way or that about the pool, peering into 

 the water to catch a glimpse of him, for he had begun to yield a 

 little to the steady strain that was kept upon him. Presently I saw 

 a shadowy, unsubstantial something just emerge from the black 

 depths, then vanish. Then I saw it again, and this time the huge 

 proportions of the fish were faintly outlined by the white facings of 

 his fins. The sketch lasted but a twinkling ; it was only a flitting 

 shadow upon a darker background, but it gave me the profoundest 

 Ike Walton thrill I ever experienced. I had been a fisher from 

 my earliest boyhood. 1 came from a race of fishers ; trout streams 

 gurgled about the family tree, and there was a long accumulated 

 and transmitted tendency and desire in me that that sight gratified. 

 I did not wish the pole in my hands ; there was quite enough elec- 

 tricity overflowing from it and filling the air for me. The fish 

 3 7 ielded more and more to the relentless pole, till, in about fifteen 

 minutes from the time he was struck, he came to the surface, then 

 made a little whirlpool where he disappeared again. But presently 

 he was up a second time, and lashing the water into foam as the 

 angler led him towards the rock upon which I was perched, net in 

 hand. As I reached towards him, down he went again, and taking 

 another circle of the pool, came up still more exhausted, when, be- 

 tween his paroxysms, I carefully ran the net over him, and lifted 

 him ashore, amid, it is needless to say, the wildest enthusiasm of 

 the spectators. The congratulatory laughter of the loons down on 

 the lake showed how even the outsiders sympathized. Much larger 



