Ingonish 
wayside cottage, and a penny's worth of Cape 
Breton potatoes capable of being prepared in 
many appetising ways completely satisfied us ; 
but now all was changed. We entered upon 
an era of camp cooking that revolutionised 
our previous habits and converted us for all 
time to come into exacting epicures. 
On the stones by a brook-side we cooked 
and ate the result of our first day's fishing, — 
smelts, and a few small bass. Smelts are more 
delicate in flavour than bass, and they possess 
the great advantage of being without scales. 
The scaling of a small bass is infinitely more 
entertaining to the onlooker than to the opera- 
tor. The slippery little thing has to be held 
by its slippery little tail while one scrapes 
against the scales, and consequently the ex- 
asperating object is flying through the air most 
of the time. 
The doctor did not spend much time fish- 
ing off the wharf, as certain large brook trout 
in his tent testified. He had preserved the 
largest and displayed their dried forms with 
exceeding great pride. He explained to us his 
way of curing them and considered a pound 
and a half a good size for a trout, though the 
i6 241 
