A TRIP TO THE LA VAL. 73 



to's, but burns, and I never again shall despise a thing 

 because it is small. Compelled to surrender all hope of 

 sleep, I gathered the dying embers of the fire, and add- 

 ing fuel, drove away the pests, while, at the same time, 

 with infinite relish, I scorched our men, who, to my pre- 

 vious disgust, had been sleeping during my suflferings as 

 though they were in paradise. . 



By the earliest dawn I had waded into the river and 

 made the discovery that fish, unlike the proverbial birds, 

 will not take the fiy too early. Just before the sunlight 

 tinged the mountain-tops, they, thinking to provide their 

 own breakfasts, provided me with mine, so that, when 

 the time came to leave off, I had taken twenty fish 

 weighing over forty pounds. 



Immediately after the meal was over, we continued 

 our ascent as rapidly as possible, dreading another expcr 

 rience such as we had endured the previous night, and 

 hurried on to reach our regular camping-ground and 

 pitch a proper tent. On the way, I only had time to 

 catch fifteen, weighing thirty-seven pounds, the largest 

 being of three pounds and a half, and late in the after- 

 noon hailed with pleasure the information that at last 

 we had reached the spot that was to be to us for some 

 time our home. It was a beautiful location ; the stream, 

 by a sudden bend, forming a low, long point of land, 

 nearly level, which had been, by previous camping par- 

 ties, entirely denuded of underbrush and partly of trees. 

 In front, midway in the river, was a large flat rock, 

 beyond which, extending to the further shore, and just 

 fairly within casting distance, lay a deep, black pool. 

 A dead tree leaned over this rock from our side of the 



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