fished they ever so expertly. I, of course, did my best to comfort them, and assured them of good sport if they had the patience to wait for it, but that they might as well expect to find full-blown lilies upon the surface of a frozen lake as brooktrout in the rising mood while the streams were roiled by the fast-flowing snow-water.

A few sunny days after the 25th accomplished what was needful. Fish may be caught in the lakes, by trolling, as soon as the ice disappears, but even lake-trout are lazy, or "hug the bottom," until they are quickened into life or lured to the surface by sunshine and warm weather. As I am writing, I notice a very pleasant letter in the Journal of Commerce, from a venerable angler, in which he plaintively refers to his ill-luck early in May. And his experience was the experience of every one. It was, this year, the 25th before there was good fishing. All who came in earlier were disappointed; and those who took their departure before the 30th, doubtless did so with the false impression that here as elswhere, trout fishing was "played out." If so, they were simply mistaken. The present generation of anglers will be "played out" long before trout fishing in the Adirondacks. To be sure, the scamps who placed pickerel in Long Lake, and the Fish Commissioners who planted black bass in the Raquette did what they could to

accomplish this result; but there will be trout in those waters long after those who perpetrated this folly shall have passed over their rods and reels to their successors.

The high water caused by the dam at SettingPole rapids is working great mischief in all this region. It has caused the overflow of tens of thousands of acres. The result will be that the beauty of the Raquette and its connected lakes will be marred by the destruction of the beautiful evergreens and maples which line their banks, and which have rendered them so wonderfully attractive and picturesque. But this is not all. The receding waters in midsummer must leave this whole region a reeking mass of decaying vegetation, filling the air with fever-exciting miasma, and making a sojourn in the midst of it exceedingly hazardous. Its effects are already seen in the thousands of dead trees which mar the beauty of the river's banks, and the coming August will demonstrate its pernicious influence upon the comfort and health of visitors, and the scattered residents upon its borders. If the effects apprehended are realized, the dam will be abated as a nuisance, by lawful process or otherwise- unless indeed the threatened suits for damages by parties aggrieved shall induce its owners to rid themselves of troublesome litigation by destroying the dam themselves.

Anglers are chiefly aggrieved by this obstruction to the free flow of the water because it has destroyed several favorite trout-haunts notably Cole's Point and Lothrop's Chopping, where for many years I have had my best spring fly fishing. The eight or ten feet artificially added to the body of the water have so changed the currents of the river that they are no longer gathering places for trout. But in spite of this desecration, these old waters still afford ample amusement for those who fish them patiently and with moderate skill.

Look you! here is a trout will fill six reasonable bellies.[Sir Izaak Walton.

HE lower Saranac is closely fished, but it still affords good sport with the troll. The lake-trout are generally of medium size, varying from two to eight pounds, and occasionally running as high as ten and twelve. There are not many lakes in the woods so persistently fished, and not many which make better returns to the patient angler. There are a few gentlemen who seldom go beyond it and its connected waters, notably the venerable Mr. ARNOLD, of Keeseville, whose nearly fourscore years are kept mellow by the time he gives to this healthful recreation. Others, who have reached the sear-and-yellow-leaf time of life, would find their setting sun reflecting back a cheerier light if they would imitate his good example.

In August there is not much better fly fishing in all these woods than can be had in Cold and Ray brooks, which empty into the Saranac within a few miles of Martin's; and the trout are large as well as abundant. But only a few stop to fish there, hoping, often mistakenly, that a longer journey will insure them better sport. But many "go farther and fare worse." In the spring, however, to "go farther" is a necessity, as these brooks are not worth visiting before midsummer.

I have very pleasant recollections of my two visits to them, last year and the year before, far on in the month of August. Lying some three or four miles off from the straight line to the Raquette, I had not, until two years ago, deemed it worth while to experiment in new waters during the brief time I take in August, and so had always previously pushed on to my old haunts, but not always to my entire satisfaction.

The spring is the time for exploration, and I find no greater pleasure than in following my pilot over untrodden paths, with no other guide than is afforded by the pocket compass or the blazed tree. The tramp is sometimes wearisome, but always charming, both in anticipation and in realization. As I look back upon these excursions, a thousand delightful reminiscences come to me as freshly and as vividly as if some of them did not reach back