134 Reminiscences of 



days' travelling we arrived at the South Park, where 

 we established a permanent camp. We found good 

 hunting and fishing, but the trout very very tame and 

 dull on the line, though good eating. They had neither 

 the beauty nor activity of the Eastern trout, and acted 

 when hooked less gamy than Eastern chubs. These 

 trout were so tame — and I generally found them so in 

 Colorado — that little skill was required to catch them, 

 and I have seen men on horseback following a stream 

 and jerking out many trout with poles and baited 

 hooks. I presume they are now educated up to a 

 more critical standard. 



All fishermen who have fished over varied sections 

 have doubtless observed how fish vary in their bold- 

 ness or shyness. There are, of course, the particular 

 fish who may have been hooked several times, and 

 have become very shy and very difficult to catch ; but 

 I refer to the general class of fish in streams and ponds 

 or lakes as affected by frequency of fishing. There are 

 many shades and degrees of shyness between the trout 

 in waters which have not been fished and those which, 

 for instance, are in the Thames and streams of Eng- 

 land, where the greatest caution is required, and where 

 the method of drawing the fiy across the water, as 

 pursued in this country, is of little avail, and where 

 only the smallest kind of flies can succeed, and only 

 where they are quite dry and can float with the current 

 down-stream on the surface, in imitation of the deli- 

 cate ephemera. Connected with the smallest thread 

 of gut, they must the moment they are wet be ex- 

 changed for perfectly dry ones. It surprises many 

 Europeans to be informed that our largest trout can 

 be taken successfully by a large No. 2 or No. 3 hook, 



