174 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 



Onward went the salmon, tlie log, and the fisherman. 

 Finally the log fonnd its way into an eddy of the river, 

 and while it was swinging about, as if out of mere devilry, 

 I left it, and fortunately reached the shore. My life 

 having been spared, I was more anxious than ever to take 

 the life of the salmon which had caused my ducking, and 

 so I held aloft the rod, and continued down the stream, 

 over an immense number of logs and rocks, which seem to 

 have been placed there for my especial botheratiijn. On 

 coming in sight of mj^ fish, I found him in still water, 

 with his belly turned upward, and completely drowned. I 

 immediately drew him on a sandbank near b}^, and while 

 engaged in the reasonable employment of drying my 

 clothes, my brother fishermen came up to congratulate me 

 upon my success, but laughing in the meantime most 

 heartily. The lumber merchant said that the log I had 

 been riding belonged to him, and it was his intention to 

 charge me one shilling from the rift where I had hooked 

 the salmon to the spot where I had landed him, which 

 was in full view of the Saguenay ; and my Quebec friend 

 remarked, that he knew the people of Yankee-land had a 

 C[ueer way of doing things, but he was not accjuainted with 

 their peculiar mode of taking salmon.' " 



" Well," said the Commissioner, " that is about as 

 romantic an account of the death of a fish, winding up with 

 as dreary a pleasantry as I ever listened to." 



" Yes," added the Baron, " and besides it gives us 



