02 OBSERVATIONS ON A SALMON RIVER 



days when Ellis, to his own rod, accounted 

 for 15, 16, or 17 fish. I was told long after- 

 wards by his principal boatman that those 

 were days in which " the canoes ran blood." 

 Ellis's description made a great impression 

 on my mind, but the whole affair seemed 

 very far off, and my fishing horizon at the 

 time did not extend beyond our own Tay, 

 my first and last love in the fishing line. 

 An Eastern proverb has it that " the crow 

 of one's own country is better than the 

 Phoenix of a foreign land," and I have prob- 

 ably had more satisfaction in my time out 

 of a red fish killed where Tay and Isla join 

 their streams, than even out of the silvery 

 monsters of the Canadian river. 



But events subsequently brought me 

 much closer to the Cascapedia. In 1883 I 

 was offered, and accepted, the Governor- 

 Generalship of Canada. During the weeks 

 which preceded my departure, I received a 

 number of invaluable letters from my pre- 

 decessor, Lord Lome, who was good enough 

 to give me many useful hints about men and 



