and the Maritime Provinces. 24 3 



salmon in passage, and now and then a salmon broke fairly out of water, 

 not with the playful leap as seen in the fresh-water salmon pools, but as 

 the trout breaks from one wave to another in headlong flight. Only 

 once did I see a salmon come up vertically, head on, and that occurred 

 within two feet of the boat. He was bold and vigorous. He came up with 

 a rush from below, undoubtedly for anchovies above. It was an exciting 

 moment, for I had a salmon on at the time, which was wild with fight, and 

 it seemed to me that the leaping salmon would come into the boat. As I 

 fought my salmon to gaff, which had struck my bait as I was bending on 

 my sinker-line forty feet from the hook (which, however, was fully com- 

 pleted), and which carried out my line fully 300 feet on the first rush, but 

 which I brought around in ten or twelve minutes, my sinker was caught by 

 another salmon as I was lifting it clear from the water to detach as usual 

 from the boat side, and carried it off. This was within six feet of the 

 boat, and I plainly saw the rush, the open mouth, the strike and the tear 

 away. The sinker-line fortunately broke, leaving my half-exhausted salmon 

 on my hook line, which I safely brought in. Striking at the sinker is by 

 no means rare with the salmon, this being the third I have had carried away, 

 and I have several times seen the salmon strike the sinker within six or 

 ten feet of the boat, and strike at it several times in rapid succession, and 

 am quite sure that with a hook bent on the sinker end, I would occasionally 

 hold a salmon, but the rush of fishing has been on so strong that I have 

 had little time to experiment, and I have been quite satisfied to hold a 

 single salmon with its vigorous life and game fight. I am confident I 

 could get doublets, and even triplets if I chose, but when the salmon are 

 as plentiful as I found them on the occasion I have referred to at Carmelo 

 bay, I am sure that by having my leading line sufficiently strong with its 

 hooks to play the salmon off against each other until exhaustion occurred, 

 I would be enabled to bring them to gaff. I am sure they could not 

 run so far as a single salmon, and it would, with proper care, be but a ques- 

 tion of time in fetching them up to the surface and boat. I am sure, also, 

 they could be brought around with the light steel rod of ten ounces, which 

 I used, slowly but surely, by right management of the boat. Upon the 

 occasion referred to I dispensed with my sinker after the first fish, and had 

 my bait of fresh sardine taken about as fast as I could get it out. I have 

 always considered the playing of the salmon as a period of great satisfac- 

 tion, but this time, with the salmon so plentiful about, I could but be- 

 grudge the enduring vitality of my fish. I saw the following in the clear 

 water of several salmon at a time after the bait, when the envied and suc- 

 cessful striker left his comrades to seek other and less dangerous lures. 

 There was no difficulty in following the school, although the ruffled water 

 made the surface breaks less conspicuous, for the friendly shags, murres 



