ADVENTURES ANT) MISADVENTURES OE A SALMON-ANGLER 525 



pointing cautiously across the river and up- 

 stream. He must have seen something un- 

 usual, and raising myself carefully I peeped 

 over the boulder. A beautiful black bear 

 was crossing some level slab rocks, evi- 

 dently making his way to the other side of 

 the Flat Rock pool. Soon he was separated 

 from me by less than sixty feet of water, giv- 

 ing an excellent opportunity to study him 

 before his suspicions had been aroused. 

 Surely, the bear is the comedian of the 

 woods. This particular animal ambled 

 about like a colt at play; drew near to the 

 water, dipped one paw in and withdrew it, 

 appearing to decide that the temperature 



was too chilly for a swim. Thus we passed 

 almost ten minutes and then, noticing the 

 rings of one or two rising fish, f stood up 

 and whistled. The poor bear was so dread- 

 fully frightened that he almost tripped up 

 and fell headlong in his frantic haste to get 

 away. 



At about the third cast I hooked a fish 

 that was considerably heavier than the usual 

 Nepisiguit salmon. We judged it weighed 

 about fourteen pounds. I say judged 

 advisedly, because we did not weigh it — for 

 reasons that will appear later on. The 

 salmon was a powerful fish and a sensible 

 one withal, for instead of fooling his time 





THE ST. JOHN RIVER, NEW BRUNSWICK, BELOW THE GRAND FALLS — A FAMOUS SALMON STREAM 



