254 J G0 A-FISHING. 



This evening was profoundly still ; not a breath of air 

 disturbed the leaf of a tree. One could hardly hope to 

 find a Profile Lake trout so foolish as to take a fly on 

 such a glassy surface. I was lazy and indolent, but Du- 

 pont was making long and steady casts, always graceful, 

 and as sure as graceful. I paused and watched him. I 

 could just see in the twilight the fall of his tail fly, some 

 fifty feet away from his hand, as it touched the water 

 close inshore under a great rock, and I felt in my own 

 arm the thrill which was in his as I saw the slightest com- 

 motion on the surface, and knew that a good fish had risen 

 and "sucked in" the fly without striking it. It was a 

 very pretty contest then, with his light Norris rod and a 

 fish that would weigh over a pound. The silence was 

 profound. No sound on water or land or in the air. Few 

 night birds are heard in our forests thereabouts, and in 

 the cool evenings the insects are still. So I looked on 

 while he patiently wearied and landed his fish — a good 

 size for this over fished lake, where the trout have little 

 chance to grow large. It is in some respects the most 

 wonderful trout pond I have ever known. In the rush 

 of travel hundreds of men and boys, and many ladies, take 

 trout here every summer. Few days in July and August 

 see less than ten or fifteen rods on the lake. We have 

 estimated an annual catch of at least three thousand trout 

 in this small pond, and the supply seems equally great 

 each year. This is largely due to the protection of the 

 smaller pond above the lake, which is the breeding-place, 

 and where no fishing is permitted. 



I had taken nothing. In fact, I had not made a dozen 

 casts. But now I began to work, laying the flies away in 

 the shoal water near the inlet. It is the advantage of 

 fly-fishing that one can cover so large a space of water 



