FISHING IN MUSKOKA, ETC 243 



fishing in Canada, and that is the flies. There 

 are days in the fishing season when the sun is 

 obscured by a sort of haze when the thin-skinned 

 man (especially if his hair be reddish) is unable 

 to endure them. Ointment, veils, gloves, tobacco- 

 smoke ! nothing can protect him. He is reduced 

 to a state of temporary idiocy, and unless he 

 wishes to continue to suffer he had better fly to 

 his tent, where, sitting over a smoke of burning 

 cedar-bark, so pungent and stifling that the tears 

 flow from his eyes, he may experience some relief. 

 Flies cannot stand the full blaze of the sun, 

 neither do they like a breeze of wind, therefore 

 the more open and exposed the situation the 

 better for a fisherman's camp. Personally I have 

 never selected the rivers, but confined my camping- 

 ground to a lake. The spot I should recommend 

 would be a rocky isle of about a quarter of an 

 acre, situated a few hundred yards off the shore. 

 While fishing in Crane and Blackstone Lakes we 

 were entirely free from these pests, though I can 

 vividly recall a night spent at Fairmont, Lake 

 Muskoka when I was driven from my bed, and 

 sought refuge in the cool waters of the lake. I 

 shall never forget that moonlight swim. I took 

 the precaution to carry a mackintosh, a warm 



