THE THOUSAND ISLES. 195 



beautiful natural grove, we set to work to build a lire and 

 prepare our fish for dinner. The pleasantest arrange- 

 ment connected with this fishing is that each boat is 

 provided with a basket of good cold fare, a frying-pan 

 and the necessary means of cooking ; and in the middle 

 of the day it is customary for several to meet at an 

 appointed island, and for the fishermen to have a jolly 

 dinner. Although we were first to arrive, our com- 

 panions were not long behind us, and the best fish, 

 especially the black bass, were selected, cleaned, split 

 open, and fried in the grease tried out of a few pieces of 

 salt pork. Our provisions were combined and made 

 quite a handsome picnic set-out, rendered more accept- 

 able to our sharpened appetite by a few glasses of iced 

 champagne. Of course we had our stories to tell : how 

 skillfully we had landed this fish, or how unfortunately 

 we had lost that; and one man, who had struck and 

 almost landed a mascallonge, was agitated with mingled 

 happiness and despondency. The days were long, our 

 boatmen had had a hard tug of it, the shade was grateful, 

 the champagne refreshing, our cigars excellent, and con- 

 sequently no one was hurried. The wind, however, kept 

 increasing, and after a couple of hours, pleasantly passed, 

 we once more embarked and bid each other farewell till 

 night. 



My boatman struck well in toward the Canadian shore ; 

 but although we crossed places where he had had won- 

 derful success on many a previous occasion, and of which 

 there were extraordinai^ stories of mascallonge, our 

 luck had deserted us. However, perseverance was re- 

 warded; suddenly my hand-line was taughtened as 



