4 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 



well sheltered, and surrounded by an ampliitlieatre of 

 moimtains, stood on comparatively high land about the 

 middle of the valley. Its windows commanded an ex- 

 tensive view of a chain of blue and limpid lakes, aboimding 

 in pike and perch, which stretched away towards the foot 

 of the mountains, while partly hidden by intervening trees, 

 was another series of still more beautiful sheets of water, 

 whose shores were well wooded, whose surfaces were inter- 

 spersed with green islands, and whose depths were w^ell 

 stocked wdth most magnificent trout and abundance of 

 silvery roach. 



The reader will readily come to the conclusion that 

 these lakes, and the streams flowing from them, were not 

 over fished by a superabundant population of sporting 

 gentry, when he is informed that the writer, being not a 

 little proud of his promotion liy a learned prelate, and 

 being moreover under some slight impression that he was 

 n<jt the worst preacher in the diocese, had made rather a 

 careful preparation for his introductory sermon in his new 

 parish, and that when he ascended the pulpit to deliver it, 

 his congregation consisted of two policemen and the 

 squire's coachman. 



HaviDg mentioned the squire's coachman, it would be 

 wrong to omit all mention of the squire himself. He was 

 a gentleman. He had inherited a dark Spanish appearance 

 from his mother. His understanding had been opened by 

 a university education in which he had distino-uished 



