ures of both countries. Each possesses a deeply indented coast line
and a wealth of pine forests, lakes, and rivers. But the climate of
British Columbia is much milder; the valleys are richer in soil, the
mountains in precious metals, and the waters are inhabited by different
species of fish. And whereas the Scandinavian peninsula has some ten
millions of people, British Columbia supports as yet but one hundred
thousand of population, including Indians.

It is without doubt a country of great possibilities. The summer climate
of the southern central plateau is very bracing and dry, resembling that
of the southern Californian winter; while the winter climate of the
coast is like Devonshire. Game, both large and small, is still plentiful
in the south, while the northern part is one of the best big game
districts of the world.

British Columbia is the home of the rainbow trout, which flourishes in
all its rivers and lakes to the furthest north, and spreads southwards
into the neighbouring Pacific states, where it has, however, to compete
with another species, the cut-throat trout. The eastern limit of the
rainbow is the Rocky Mountain range.

The chief purpose of this book is to give some idea of the habits and
peculiarities of the rainbow, and the sport which it affords in its
native haunts. The author spent some twelve years in the interior of the
country, and has fished a great many of its numberless lakes and
streams, so he may claim to write from practical experience. But he
writes also with the hope that perhaps someone more competent may in the
future publish a complete history of this most interesting fish, and
solve some of the problems which are here but alluded to. For there is
ample scope in these almost virgin waters for both the naturalist and
the fisherman, to whom these notes may perhaps serve as the blazes on a
mountain trail, and as some slight record of the sport that was to be
obtained in the earlier days of British Columbia.

Though the inland waters swarm with Pacific salmon at certain seasons,
the fish are useless for purposes of sport. They take no bait of any
kind when they have once started to migrate up the rivers. In the salt
water, however, and while waiting at the mouths of rivers, they take a
spoon-bait freely, and the smaller kinds will in the same conditions
often rise readily to the fly. But it may be stated, as a general rule,
no salmon are ever taken on bait or fly as they travel, and