160 With Rod and Gun in New England 



on. Morn came, and Mr. Wood was awakened, and having taken some 

 refreshment he was ready to renew the contest, and resumed the rod. Other 

 fishermen began to arrive on the river's bank, and there found Mr. Wood 

 still fast to the salmon, which had resisted all his efforts to land him through 

 the livelong night. Up and down went the anxious group, following the 

 fish to and fro until the day advanced ; the morning passed and noon arrived, 

 when it was thought that the fish began to show signs of distress, but Mr. 

 Wood was again compelled from utter exhaustion to relinquish the rod, 

 which was taken by Sergeant Maine, a skilful fisherman ; and shortly after 

 this the hook parted from its hold, and the line came home, leaving the 

 gallant fish to his well-earned liberty, after having tired out three foes and 

 been on the hook for nineteen hours and a half." 



The weight of the fish is supposed to have been at least sixty pounds. 



" It was hard lines, indeed, to lose the fish after such a fight as that," 

 said the Judge. " There is a record of another protracted struggle which 

 occurred a few years ago. A Mr. Denison hooked a large fish in the river 

 Ness. The fish fought well, keeping the anglers on the move up and 

 down the bank from evening until about four in the morning, when, by 

 some accident, the reel caught in Mr. Denison's watchguard and the fish 

 broke away; as they had seen him several times, he was estimated at hard 

 upon fifty pounds. Probably ten or eleven hours were consumed in the 

 contest ; this incident, of course, fell short in point of endurance of that 

 which occurred to Mr. Wood, which must be held as the stoutest fight with 

 a salmon ever known." 



" I have often wished I might visit some of the great rivers of the 

 north," said the Doctor, " where salmon are found in such abundance that 

 the Oregon fisheries pale into insignificance beside them ; I have been told 

 that some of the Labrador streams teem with them, but the coast of Ungavy 

 bay in Upper Canada and Hudson straits seem to be incomparably rich 

 in this respect. Mr. F. G. Raynor, the President of the Raynor Oil 

 Company, says the salmon of that high latitude are undoubtedly the finest 

 in the world. They are further north than any other salmon taken on 

 this continent, and the lower the temperature of the water the better 

 salmon are. The Restigouche, or any of the salmon of the St. Lawrence 

 basin, are far superior to the Oregon salmon, and the Hudson straits 

 salmon are just as much superior to the Restigouche fish. Besides the 

 salmon the waters of the Hudson straits coast teem with a deep sea trout 

 which has not its like on the face of the globe. 



" But the method adequate for catching these fish is just as peculiar as 

 the fish themselves are, and it is doubtful if salmon or trout fishing is done 

 in the same way elsewhere. The coast of Hudson straits is indented by 

 thousands of small bays and estuaries, and many rivers traverse it to the 



