286 THE Aroostook Woops. 

Islands of beauty! long may you be allowed to keep as 
green as now, and may you always escape the careless hands 
of those who may forget to extinguish every spark of their 
fire, and be left to wave in the breeze as prettily as you do 
to-day, in pleasing harmony with the little waves that lave 
your rocky shores and moisten your roots. 
Passing between, and by the islands, our worthy captain, by 
vote of the whole crew, unanimous, has just been promoted. 
This is for his able engineering over the lakes, through the 
rapids and whirlpools, by many a wicked rock and snag; and 
for his many indefatigable exertions, his quiet resignation 
and nontalkbackativeness (7) in regard to too much from the 
crew, and his many amiable qualities generally; has been 
promoted to the very highest and most honorable position on 
board the birch-bark fleet, and is now the ‘*‘ Commodore.” 
He now suggests (merely to tickle the crew, we imagine) 
that as we are now upon the big waters, to try for a big fish. 
Accordingly we face about toward him, sitting in the bottom 
of the canoe, straighten out, and leaning back against the 
forward crossbar, light the brierwood, reach the troll line, 
and while he lifts us gaily along, we run out the line with the 
old fashioned spoon bait at the end, well sunk down in the 
water. This old decoy yet occasionally deceives a large fish, 
as we succeed in taking a beauty. But this one only do we 
try for at present, for as we are often saying, ‘‘ give us the 
little fellows and we are better suited.” 
On we go, and on beyond open out the blue waters of Big 
Fish Lake. Rightly named, for here, even at the present 
day, the fish are most numerous and of many kinds. Some 
of the trout family (togue) so large, we dare not name the 
weight. We dip together lively for the big brook, where if 
