FisHInG THROUGH THE ICE. 20 

hooks him and he is fastened, usually to stay, when after 
vainly fighting for awhile, he sulks and then remains quiet. 
Most of the winter fishing is not really very desirable, one 
finding a cold, paralysing time, when the wind is unfavorable 
and it is usually unsatisfactory as to results. We never knew 
of but one party ever doing a real fine ‘‘GrEorc1A, ALABAMA” 
land office business at winter fishing through the ice. This 
was on Penobscot waters, as we heard the story; a party of 
two cut a hole below a dam, in a pool, where the trout were 
locked in. As their chisel punched through, the confined 
water burst out, the trout following and coming with it in a 
steady drove. The water subsided, yet the fish kept pop- 
ping out; some lively kicking was done to save them from 
going back, but at last the men were satisfied with a two 
bushel sack full of trout. 
During the last days of March, the rains, with the ever 
increasing warmth of the sun, having much reduced the deep 
snow, and another crust forming during a cold night; we 
take this time to look over a line of mink and sable traps, 
down through the long, swampy lowlands. The line run- 
ning through the swamp and by the foot of the ridges, often 
neared and ran beside a small spring brook which was now 
all open from the sun and warm rain, until another winter 
should pile down its deep snows upon it. It was always of 
much interest to us, from being in many places alive with the 
very smallest trout. The cool spring brook in the summer 
and the warn spring brook in winter, and its waters pure 
and sweet at any time are nearly always of the same temper- 
ature. We came upon it at first, at its head, and the springs 
that feed it; two tiny streams are making their way down, 
soon joining in one, growing a little wider and deeper, for a 
