14 FISHING GOSSIP. 
lake then, and Tom, besides, was not much in that 
way. Still the landing-net could be dimly descried 
in the distance in operation from time to time ; and, 
combining these facts and conjectures together, he 
concluded there was a new fishing dodge of some 
kind “in the wind.” As a last resource, it occurred 
to him that the examination of Tom’s boat might 
throw some light on the subject. Some traces of the 
slaughter might be found where the deed was done. 
When he saw Tom depart for the night, he accord- 
ingly descended to the boat, and there discovered, to 
his surprise, not only fragments, but a living speci- 
men of the Collaugh rhua—Anglicé, the “ red-hag”— 
the veritable stone loach of systematic writers, 
swimming about merrily in the bilge-water of the 
ill-caulked craft, and which doubtless found its 
way there accidentally from Tom’s “kettle of snipes.” 
The secret was now out, and soon to become a fatal 
fact to the fly-fishing of the district, as will appear 
hereafter. 
Before proceeding to the practical details of this 
paper, I may be permitted to offer a few general 
remarks on the appearance, haunts, and habits of the 
Great Lake trout, or Salmo jferox, to which these 
details apply. Into the science of the subject I shall 
not enter, though well aware of the wide and seduc- 
tive field of observation which the natural history of 
the fish opens to the amateur essayist. But the sub- 
