98 OBSERVATIONS ON A SALMON RIVER 



man to leave his boat and fish the stream in 

 his own way standing on terra firma. There 

 were two or three places where I used to do 

 this with much success, and greatly to my 

 own satisfaction, but as a rule the modus 

 operandi was as follows: The canoe was 

 poled to the head of the pool, a stone 

 anchor attached to a rope of stout manilla 

 hemp was let go, and the rope was paid out 

 gradually, foot by foot, after each cast. 

 When the boat came to the end of its tether 

 the anchor was hauled in and let go again 

 a few yards lower down. In this way the 

 holding parts of the pool could be systemati- 

 cally and thoroughly searched. Much 

 judgment had to be exercised in deciding 

 what water to fish and what to leave alone. 

 The bed of the river was constantly chang- 

 ing. The spring floods undermined the 

 banks, which collapsed, carrying with them 

 the trees which stood nearest to the water's 

 edge, and so old pools were silted up and 

 new pools excavated. A pool might be ex- 

 cellent one season and useless the next. It 



