200 Trout in a Thunder-Storm. 



that the prospect of a light creel at 

 evening had no effect on our spirits. 

 Trout were abundant anyway, and we 

 were catching enough every day for camp 

 use. 



As Dick quietly paddled us near the 

 spring holes we could see the trout lazily 

 poising themselves on their red and white 

 marginal fins, and slightly stirring the 

 sandy bottom with slow sweeps of their 

 mottled tails, not caring to exert them- 

 selves to make a move for the flies which 

 we seductively cast near them. 



Once in a while under the low hanging 

 branches of a hemlock or bunch of alders 

 we would , find a trout that was anxious to 

 have a pull at the fly, but on the whole we 

 had taken very few up to the middle of 

 the afternoon, when ominous mutterings 

 began to be heard in the south. Great 

 thunder-heads of dark cumulus appeared 

 over the tall pines and hemlocks and 

 rapidly rolled toward us. The forest was 

 wrapped in an awful stillness. Not a 

 sound could be heard near us save an 

 occasional muffled murmur of the water as 



