THE FIRST DAY’S FISHING. 
41 
laboriously up, my companion, leaning over the 
side, had pointed and said, ‘ That looks a good 
stream, you had better try there.’ I looked. 
The current, swinging across from the Para¬ 
guay bank, met, on the Brazil shore, a long reef 
of submerged rock, which deflected and com¬ 
pressed it. The result was a stretch of tumbled 
water, shallow where it ran over the reef, deep 
and swirling beyond, with a broad quiet back¬ 
water between it and the Brazilian bank. I 
looked carefully. I knew next to nothing of 
dorado fishing, but had been told that they lived 
in strong rapid water. The experiment had to 
be made somewhere : why not make it there ? 
As we dropped down to it, carried more by 
the sweeping current than by the occasional 
touches of Pedroso’s paddle, I tried a cast or 
two before arriving : not that I expected to 
catch anything; but the rod was new, and so 
was the Silex reel, and it was as well to learn 
their kick before reaching the fish. We were 
not long doing so. Pedroso with a few strokes 
of his paddle shot the canoe into the easy water, 
and I made a short cast. I had not the slightest 
idea what to expect. I had never seen a dorado. 
Whether there were any there or not, whether 
they would take and how, and when : all this 
was hidden. Pedroso was hardly less ignorant, 
and such experience as he possessed was con¬ 
fined to hand-lining with a blindcord and a 
chunk of fish. In this state of glorious 
