sensation have something very pleasurable yet in

reserve.

The point selected for our first camp was eight miles from New Richmond, and in the immediate neighborhood of several of the best pools on the river. There is no desirable fly-fishing, at any season of the year, below them. Tide-water, within which seine-fishing is allowed, extends nearly up to them, and as-for some reason with which I am not sufficiently familiar to discoursesalmon do not readily, if ever, rise to a fly until they enter fresh water, it is never deemed worth while to wet your line until these pools are reached.

On arriving at our destination, we found Chief Justice RITCHIE, of New Brunswick, and Chief Justice GRAY, of Massachusetts, in camp, awaiting our arrival to move up higher in their pursuit of sport. They gave us a most cordial welcome-so cordial and so full of cheerful heartiness and good humor as to instantly dispel the reverential awe with which plain, unlearned laymen are wont to look upon such eminent expounders of law and dispensers of justice. They had doffed their ermine and bade us welcome with unlaced dignity and grace, in flannel shirts and well-worn trousers. I have already referred to the buoyant spirits and charming hilarity of the Chief Justice of New Brunswick. He seemed an embodiment of good

humor, as if he lived and moved and had his being in an atmosphere of perpetual sunshine. And Chief Justice GRAY was like him in all the good qualities desirable in camp companionship. He is a man of grand physique-more than six feet high and well proportioned—and, at home, towers above the mass of his compeers in dignity and learning as he does above most men in comely stature. It was very pleasant to mark the simple enthusiasm with which these two eminent men gave us their piscatorial experiences and recounted their achievements with rod and reel. It reminded one of the grand characters of the past—of the princes, and poets, and bishops, and chancellors, and the quiet, contemplative, happy scholars and philosophers of all times—who have found their highest delectation in their pursuit of the delightful recreation of angling. It may not seem so to the plodding man of business, who deems all time wasted which does. not bring golden grist to his mill; but it is nevertheless true that there have been multitudes of wise men, and good men, and happy men in all ages who, more than when honors or wealth came to them, have rejoiced when the times and seasons returned, when they could say to their friends, as Peter said to the disconsolate disciples, "I go a-fishing." Amid his deepest gloom and despondency, this great-hearted apostle fell back instinc

tively upon his old vocation as the only source of comfort and relief. Multitudes of other heavy hearts and aching brains have found like relief from the same source of harmless diversion.

These distinguished anglers had had grand success. It was Judge GRAY's first visit, but having had long experience in the minor departments of the art, he found but little difficulty in acquiring the higher skill which the more complicated work of salmon-fishing requires. He had numerous trophies to exhibit in proof of the success which had attended his maiden efforts, and he referred to them with as much enthusiasm and, I doubt not, with far more satisfaction, than he had ever referred to any of his most noted triumphs in the line of his profession. It is never in a spirit of mere boasting that a true angler alludes to his achievements, but because of the simple pleasure which, like the old soldier, he derives from "fighting his battles o'er again." To rehearse the incidents connected with the capture of some famous fish, is to re-experience the thrilling sensations which accompanied the feat itself. They remain, like the recollections of some pleasant spoken word, or of some beautiful picture, or of some grand scene in nature, a joyous memory forever. He is an unhappy man who has not some pleasant wells of memory to draw upon, if it be true, as

some thoughtful philosopher has said, that “half the joy of old age consists in the recollection of the pleasures of youth."

A single incident in the experience of Chief Justice RITCHIE is especially worth mentioning. Near the close of a day of fine sport he struck a thirty-pound salmon, which he tried in vain to kill before nightfall. It is a herculean task, requiring the highest skill and every possible favoring opportunity, to capture such a fish. The chances are always against success at the best. But the venerable Chief found himself tied to this monster long after twilight had ceased to fall upon the face of the waters. The pool, always dark in its great depths, soon became black as a starless midnight. There were rocks on either side of him, rushing waters above him and boiling rapids below him. His line was invisible, and the only perceptible sign of life around him or before him, was the tugging and rushing of the maddened salmon fighting for his life amid the thick darkness which every where prevailed. Under any circumstances, the venerable angler would rather, a thousand times, subject himself to the merciless criticisms which a wrong judicial decision might provoke, than to lose a fish. But under the circumstances in which, at this time, he was surrounded, he would rather have taken that fish than to have been placed on

the wool-sack of the United Kingdom. And yet how could it be done? It was useless for him to soliloquize, as he did, "You beggar, I'll fight you 'till sunrise before you shall beat me." Long before sunrise the fish might escape, the canoe be swamped in some merciless rapid, and the venerable Chief left stranded and dripping upon some inhospitable rock, with nothing to cheer him in his wretched loneliness but the roar of the thundering waters or the plaintive notes of the hooting night-owl. Fortunately, neither an all-night fight nor a possible shipwreck awaited him. His coChief Justice took in the situation as readily as he catches the point of a lawyer's brief, improvised a few flambeaux and started off to the rescue. was a timely interposition, resulting in perfect sucThe flambeaux made the surroundings of the combatants bright as day, and in due time the salmon gave up the fight, was duly gaffed and brought into camp, escorted by the first torch-light procession in which either Chief had ever before been the principal actor.

cess.

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