SALMON-RIVEP.S OF BRITISH PROVINCES. 395 



he tapped the Salmon on the head with a short billet of wood ; 

 "Bon poisson I" responded John, holding it up with the hook 

 of the spring balance in its snout, and down went the index 

 to sixteen pounds. 



Six weeks later I hooked my last fish of the summer in the 

 same pool, and killed it in the same eddy below. They were 

 both fresh-run from the sea ; both females, and both of the 

 same weight. This singular coincidence cast a halo of quiet 

 satisfaction around my recollection of a summer on the beau- 

 ful Nipissiguit. 



Papineau Falls, the next station, some eight or nine miles 

 from Bathurst, is as renowed for the wild beauty of its 

 scenery, as for its splendid Salmon-pools, of which there are 

 three that are in high repute amongst the anglers who visit 

 the river. Many fish are lost here from the rapidity of the 

 water and the difficulty of getting along the precipitous 

 rocky bank. About eighteen or twenty years ago, a packing 

 establishment was opened here, and as many as six hundred 

 barrels of salted fish were put up in one summer, which 

 were taken by spearing and netting the river at this place 

 and above. 



Bittahock, two or three miles above, has two pools, where 

 there was formerly good fishing, but they have deteriorated 

 of late years, and there are but few fish taken here now. This 

 place is remarkable for its deep still waters, the fairy-like 

 nooks along its banks, and the singular appearance of the 

 rocks, which seem to have been broken and lifted from 

 horizontal strata, and piled with remarkable accuracy in 

 parallel layers like mason's work. 



The next station is Mid Landing. Here the river rushes 

 through a deep narrow gorge, that one might pitch a biscuit 

 across. The canoe-men say, that the depth of the water at 

 the lower end is forty or fifty feet. There is one quiet pool 



