Very Tart Wanna. 251 
to his fish, which he thought a forty-pounder at least! TIis 
gaffer followed close behind, and was about to embark the 
general in a canoe to follow the salmon down the river; but 
the fish stopped in the pool where I was angling, and after a 
play of less than half an hour the general brought it to gaff, 
when it weighed 174 lbs. This feat was the greatest of the 
season; and, had not the fish been hooked on the far side from 
the general, so that it was hard to maintain an equipoise, it 
would probably have torn away. I shall never forget the 
picture of ardor and energy which rushed down along the 
shore and dashed across Rattling Run, speechless with won- 
der and excitement. At dinner we canvassed the morning’s 
sport, and, though the rain dripped slightly through the bark 
roof of our dining arbor, we began to realize that a home in 
the wilderness possesses an indescribable attraction, and the 
apparently settled rain seemed an omen for better fishing 
than we had yet enjoyed, and we parted that night to our 
several camps with a renewed stock of hope and pleasing an- 
ticipation. 
SECTION NINTH. 
THOUGHTS OF RETURNING HOMEWARD, 
Tis a midnight fair to see, 
Wondrous in sublimity. 
Lingering at our cabin door, 
Fast beside the river shore, 
D 
With the grandeur of the sky. 
led is my gazing eye 
Clouds are flying in mad chase 
O’er the moon’s benignant face ; 
In the blue concave of air 
Stars like diamonds gleam and glare, 
While with weird, celestial glow 
Springs aloft the lunar bow. 
See! like arch triumphal, high 
Tow it soareth to the sky ; 
See! like heavenly rainbow, bent 
O’er a showery firmament, 
Tow its gorgeous columns climb 
With a majesty sublime.”—Isaac M‘Leriayx 
