ECHO LAKE. 245 



around on a long curve, he went into the air seventy-five 

 feet off, and we shouted together, "It is a trout !" He was 

 strong and lively. The reel sounded like a small watch- 

 man's rattle. But he was engaged for the Profile House, 

 and the only question was, " Can we secure him alive for 

 the great tank ?" It took full ten minutes to tire him out, 

 without attempting to kill him, and with much caution to 

 do him as little injury as possible. We shouted to Frank 

 at the boat-house to bring us another boat, and we filled 

 it half full of water. By that time the trout was wearied 

 out, and came tamely up to the side of the boat. We had 

 no landing-net, for we had no thought of taking a large 

 trout. So it was necessary to do that by no means easy 

 thing, land him with the hand without hurting his gills. I 

 did this at length, and the beautiful animal swam about 

 the half-filled boat, not hurt, though sadly astonished. 

 We sent up to the house for a tub, and in another half 

 hour the old Profile Lake trout in the tank had a com- 

 panion who weighed exactly three pounds and a quarter. 



In some other waters this would be esteemed of no 

 great account ; but a three-pound trout at the Profile 

 House, and that out of Echo Lake, was certainly a sub- 

 ject of astonishment. This was on a Thursday evening, 



and the next morning, before I was awake, C was 



off for home by one of the early stages. 



The afternoon of Friday was clear but windy. There 

 was more than a ripple — in fact a heavy sea — on Echo 

 Lake. It was difficult to make an anchor hold. More 

 than that, it was hard to rig an anchor, for they kept no 

 ropes at Echo Lake. I cut a long birch pole, and with a 

 short piece of cord fastened a large stone to one end, 

 and made the other end fast to the oar-lock. With this I 

 •held on tolerably well ; and now, having a light rod, I 



