The Lure of the Rainbow 105 



told of a region thirty miles beyond, at Pelican, where this 

 hiatus could be avoided. 



"Why, boss," said a native, who had a string of fish to 

 sell, just as we were going aboard the steamer, " I've seen 

 a twenty-four pound rainbow caught on a ' Benson fly ' ; a 

 ten-pounder caught on the second fly. I disrecollect what 

 the doggone thing was called, but it looked like a cross be- 

 tween a hellgrammite and a wum, while on the leader, I 

 reckon that was a Benson, too " 



I felt it my duty to save that man. Thirty-four pounds 

 on two flies was enough even for me, so I broke in. 



" Hold on, my friend ; no matter about the weight on the 

 third fly; but that Benson fly, where can I buy one; what 

 does it look like ? " 



" Look like ?" repeated the native. " Why, stranger, it 

 looks like what it naturally is — a grasshopper, discovered, 

 patented, copyrighted byjedge Benson, the whitest man in 

 Oregon. It's a dead shore proposition and don't you forget 

 it, is the Benson fly, and that fish on the third Benson 

 weighed for " 



But just then some one shouted "All aboard!" and I 

 rushed down the gang-plank, and the steamer pulled out into 

 the stream. Surely she was a near relative of that mystic 

 ship with three decks and no bottom, which sailed in a heavy 

 dew, as she was as high as a frigate, but drew only a foot 

 or two of water. She was a stern-wheeler, picturesque and 

 accommodating to a fault, and somehow she recalled pictures 

 of the ark I had seen in an old family Bible long ago. The 

 captain and engineer were good fellows, thorough sports- 

 men ; and in some vague undefined manner I gained the im- 

 pression, very possibly an unjust suspicion, that transpor- 

 tation and mere business, was not the real object of the 

 Winona, but merely an excuse or subterfuge to enable the 

 genial owners to reach the pools of big trout, the tule lands, 

 forests and wocus marshes, where the blue-winged teal, the 

 mallard, deer and grouse .made their home. This may not 



