low where your fish leads. It would of course be different if wading were possible, but the water is generally too deep for that sort of fishing—altogether the most artistic and fascinating where practicable. As the General could not wade, he was forced to take to his canoe, which he did with great promptness and dexterity, but not an instant too soon. A delay of the twentieth part of a minute would have left him fishless and mortified. When thus again master of the situation, the contest was resumed by both parties with great vigor. No angler since the days of Nimrod ever played a fish more skillfully, or more fully enjoyed the exercise; but it was not until after a two hours' fight, extending over a distance of more than a mile, that he was brought to gaff. He weighed thirty-four pounds, and was the harbinger of many others like him captured in these pools during the period we remained at the Forks. I repeated a hundred times during my first day here what the poet says of those athirst in midocean: "Water, water every where, but not a drop to drink." The cause of this despairing cry on my part arose from the fact that while salmon were leaping all around me I could not, by any art or cunning at my command, lure one to my fly. At least twenty large fish were thus disporting themselves within easy cast, but no change of fly and no sleight in casting was of the least avail. They seemed impelled by mere exuberance of spirits. Sometimes I could see insects moving about in their neighborhood; but oftener nothing whatever appeared to justify or excuse their tantalizing friskiness. The novel spectacle, however, was entertaining, and was kept up for several hours without intermission. It is possible that some sort of fly would have lured them, but as nothing I had proved a success, I could only watch and wait. I tried to "jig" them—that is, to strike them with my hook while they were leaping, but I only succeeded in scratching the side of one of them as he was returning to his native element. This tantalizing sport continued so long that I had become weary of it, and I was ready to retire when one of the "gay gamboliers " took compassion upon me, and struck at my fly with such spirit as convinced me that I had some lively work before me. He was evidently quite as much surprised and startled as I was when he found himself under arrest. For when he first felt the sting of the hook he held himself as motionless as a log, as if cogitating upon the probable cause of the new sensation. But his cogitations were of short duration. Before I had time to up anchor and get properly braced for the encounter, he concluded to "go," which he did in the handsomest manner possible. He confined |