and the Maritime Provinces. 399 



flashing of their silver sides as they darted from the canoe's path. The 

 second cast I had an offer from a large fish ; the third, two flies disappeared 

 ere they touched the water, and my reel trilled to the strike that fastened 

 my prey. After a scamper off with some hundred feet of line, I checked, 

 which brought them bouncing out of water, shaking their heads with rage. 

 Down they went like mad, but not over my line, as they would have it. 

 They were not harmonious in action, and consequently hard to manage. 

 Plunging violently for the canoe, before I had a chance to reel up or the 

 Indian to swerve, they would have the tip of my bamboo tapping the butt, — 

 then away, dancing a frantic gallop upon the surface of the water, splashing 

 it into foam, followed by a terrific dive that made my line hum like a guitar 

 string. My only chance to secure both, without waste of time, was for 

 Francois to gaff the hind one, while I saved the other with my landing-net. 



"So I wound up at the first opportunity of slacking, and giving butt 

 gently led them toward the canoe. Francois, gaff in hand, with his eye to 

 the spot where the tail fish was to appear, with nervous eagerness in every 

 limb, was a picture in himself. Here they come, flashing their silver bellies 

 as they roll over to the tightening haul. I saw the Indian strike, and, at 

 that moment, shifting my rod to my left hand, lifted my fish into the canoe 

 with the net, just as the Indian laid his well-gaffed trout with a "sacre," at 

 my feet. A handsome brace of three-pound speckled beauties ; it would be 

 hardly possible to find their equals, either for form, brilliancy of color, or 

 condition. A crack over the nose and into the creel they went; and here 

 let me caution all fishermen whose eye this may meet. Invariably kill 

 your fish as soon as they are caught, and upon no consideration allow them 

 to dance to death, either in the basket, or worse yet, at the bottom of the 

 boat. It not only prolongs torture, but it greatly deteriorates the culinary 

 merits of the fish, the flesh becoming soft under the effect of gradual dis- 

 solution, and the richness of the flavor very much diminished. 



" Francois now paddled at a moderate rate along the margin of the 

 lake, some seventy or eighty feet from the shore, clear of rush or lily-pad — 

 and I, standing in the bow, whipped as we went, with some fifty feet of line. 

 This is, when neither canoe or paddle ruffle the surface of the water, the 

 best and surest way of securing the large fish which frequent the shallows 

 only at early dawn. I was amply rewarded — for when we reached the 

 camp I had twenty-eight fine trout, averaging two pounds in weight — had 

 stolen a march on my companions, who had scarce got the sleep out of 

 their eyes, and had enjoyed the first hours of sunlight on the lake, in all 

 the virgin glories of primeval nature, untainted by the conventionalisms of 

 my every-day life, and without one harassing thought to disturb the peace 

 and tranquility that suffused the whole." 



At Lake St. John are found in June and July great numbers of the 

 landlocked salmon, called the " ouananiche." These are caught with bait in 



