R EC RE A TION. 



231 



No other guide knows so well where to 

 take his patrons for big fish and plenty 

 of them. His boat, the " Queen of the 

 Islands," is always neat and clean, while 

 the oars and sail are daily recipients of 

 his careful attention. One need only 

 be with him once, in a good gale of 

 wind, to feel ever after perfectly secure 

 in his care, under any circumstances. 

 The elements do not appear to affect 

 Joe in the least, whether zephyr-like 

 breezes or howling gales blow. 



He has a faculty, when sailing his 

 boat in a wind, of being able to get it on 

 a big roller or white cap, and then run- 

 ning along it as if it were a cork. Many 

 a time 1 have been with him when a 

 huge wave would come along, black and 

 threatening, ready to burst on us and 

 swamp us; so dark, so threatening and 

 so near; yet nothing serious ever hap- 

 pened. While I would be shuddering at 

 the black wall of water bearing down on 

 us, Joe would simply, at the right mo- 

 ment, draw in or let off his sail, move a 

 foot or two one way or the other in the 

 boat, and the next instant she would be 

 on top of the breaker, shooting 

 along at lightning speed, without taking 

 sufficient water to dampen our 

 shoes. At such moments Joe appears 

 unconscious of what he is doing, or 

 where he is going. Like clockwork the 

 skiff, as the breaker passes away from 

 underneath her, falls back into her 

 course. She seems to be guided by the 

 will of the man rather than by his 

 hand. 



On the occasion of which I am about 

 to write, Joe had many excuses for not 

 wanting to go fishing. It was too late 

 in the season, he said. All the big fish 

 had worked their way up to the lake by 

 this time. The wind wasn't right ; it 

 came directly out of the nor'west, and 

 there was no wind so bad as that for 

 fishing. The general aspect of the 

 weather didn't look right; it was going 

 to be dirty and blow hard ; and trolling 

 under such circumstances was simply an 

 impossibility. 



At last, Joe, seeing that all his excuses 

 were of no avail, and that I was deter- 

 mined to make a trial at least, remarked 

 that if we went over among the Cana- 

 dian islands we might possibly strike a 

 Muskalonge working his way up stream. 

 So at 10 A. M., after wasting three of 

 the best hours of the day, Joe made up 



his mind to try it. It meant three dol- 

 lars to him, and that could not be picked 

 up every day at this time of the year. 



A lunch basket was packed and we 

 went to the boat-house. There lay the 

 dear old " Queen of the Islands," just 

 as I had left her a month ago, looking 

 as clean and saucy as ever. She de- 

 served her name ; no boat could ever 

 sail past her in a breeze, and no wave 

 could ever tumble into her while Joe 

 was in command. 



Joe's actions were strange this morn- 

 ing. He carefully tried a new pair of 

 oars three or four times before placing 

 them in the boat, and examined and felt 

 the leather bindings over and over 

 again. The sail was minutely examined, 

 every stitch and binding being looked 

 to. Finally that was placed in the boat 

 also. Noting all this extra precaution, 

 I asked Joe what was the matter. He 

 answered : 



" The weather gets dirty this time of 

 year, without much warning. A careful 

 man always tries his friends before he 

 trusts his life to them." 



At eleven o'clock we started with a 

 light nor'westerly breeze, passed be- 

 tween Governor's and Emery's islands, 

 and then through the Eagle's Wings, to 

 the head of the Grindstone. Sailing 

 along the Grindstone, passing Club and 

 other islands, we reached Hickory Flat. 

 Here I thought we should get a strike, 

 but was wrong. Joe seemed to think 

 we should not find what we wanted on 

 the flats, but rather in or alongside the 

 deep channels. At Cement Point, Joe 

 loosened out his sheet and ran down to 

 Seven Tree Island. Here we let out 

 the lines and fished the ground thor- 

 oughly, but without a strike. Then 

 along the head of Leek Island. On 

 arriving at Juniper Island we ran down 

 through the channel and lunched on the 

 lower point. Joe is an excellent cook, 

 but took twice as long as usual to-day in 

 preparing the meal; yet I must ac- 

 knowledge it was one of the best he ever 

 presented to a hungry patron. 



We made another start at three 

 o'clock, taking first the channel between 

 Juniper and the Northern shoal, and 

 then the channel on the south side of 

 Huckleberry. Here we struck a brace 

 of good sized pickerel ; but as Joe was 

 after bigger game, we took the head of 

 Kelaria. Passing completely around 



