IN THE CATSKILLS 



am convinced that the balance of blood was on my 

 side. The trout jumped most within a foot or two 

 of shore, where the water was only a few inches 

 deep. The shallowness of the water, perhaps, ac- 

 counted for the inability of the fish to do more than 

 lift their heads above the surface. They came up 

 mouths wide open, and dropped back again in the 

 most impotent manner. Where there is any depth 

 of water, a trout will jump several feet into the air; 

 and where there is a solid, unbroken sheet or column, 

 they will scale falls and dams fifteen feet high. 



We had the very cream and flower of our trout- 

 fishing at this lake. For the first time we could use 

 the fly to advantage; and then the contrast between 

 laborious tramping along shore, on the one hand, 

 and sitting in one end of a dug-out and casting your 

 line right and left with no fear of entanglement in 

 brush or branch, while you were gently propelled 

 along, on the other, was of the most pleasing char- 

 acter. 



There were two varieties of trout in the lake, 

 what it seems proper to call silver trout and golden 

 trout; the former were the slimmer, and seemed to 

 keep apart from the latter. Starting from the out- 

 let and working round on the eastern side toward 

 the head, we invariably caught these first. They 

 glanced in the sun like bars of silver. Their sides 

 and bellies were indeed as white as new silver. As 

 we neared the head, and especially as we came near 

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