A BED OF BOUGHS 



of season, and only palatable to a woodman's keen 

 appetite. What is this about trout spawning in 

 October and November, and in some cases not till 

 March ? These trout had all spawned in August, 

 every one of them. The coldness and purity of the 

 water evidently made them that much earlier. The 

 game laws of the State protect the fish after Septem- 

 ber 1, proceeding upon the theory that its spawning 

 season is later than that, as it is in many cases, 

 but not in all, as we found out. 



The fish are small in these streams, seldom weigh- 

 ing over a few ounces. Occasionally a large one is 

 seen of a pound or pound and a half weight. I re- 

 member one such, as black as night, that ran under 

 a black rock. But I remember much more dis- 

 tinctly a still larger one that I caught and lost one 

 eventful day. 



I had him on my hook ten minutes, and actually 

 got my thumb in his mouth, and yet he escaped. 



It was only the over-eagerness of the sportsman. 

 I imagined I could hold him by the teeth. 



The place where I struck him was a deep well- 

 hole, and I was perched upon a log that spanned 

 it ten or twelve feet above the water. The situation 

 was all the more interesting because I saw no possi- 

 ble way to land my fish. I could not lead him ashore, 

 and my frail tackle could not be trusted to lift him 

 sheer from that pit to my precarious perch. What 

 should I do ? call for help ? but no help was near. 



