sixteen pounds; the Colonel
failed to secure one which he had hooked.

_July 6._ To-day Kingfisher and the Colonel take the Upper Indian-house
Pool, and Rodman and I go to the Patapedia. We start at 4 A. M., so as
to get the early fishing, always the best. It takes an hour to pole up
the three miles, the current being very strong, and when we arrive the
pool is yet white with the morning mist. It is a long smooth rapid, with
a channel on one side running close to the high gravelly bank, evidently
cut away by spring freshets. On the other side comes in a rushing brook
or small river called the Patapedia. Rodman took the head of the pool,
and I the middle ground. I fished down some fifty yards without moving
anything, when, as I was bringing home my fly after a cast, it was taken
by a good fish. Away he went with a wicked rush full forty yards, in
spite of all I could do, then made a somersault, showing us his huge
proportions. A second and a third time he leaped, and then darted away,
I urging my men to follow with the canoe, which they did, but not
quickly enough. This was a terribly strong fish: though I was giving him
all the spring of the rod, I could not check him. When he stopped
running he began to shake his head, or, as the English fishing-books
say, "to jigger." In two minutes he jiggered out the hook and departed.

I had changed rods and lines to-day, having borrowed one from Rodman--a
Montreal rod, larger and stiffer than the other: although heavier, I
could cast better with it than with the Irish rod. Unluckily, there were
only about seventy yards of line on the reel, and the next fish I hooked
proved to be the most furious of all, for he first ran out forty yards
of line, and before I could get much of it wound up again, he made
another and a longer run, taking out all my line to the end, where it
was tied to the reel: of course he broke loose, taking away my fly and
two feet of casting-line. By this time the sun was high in the heavens,
and we returned to camp--Rodman with a salmon of seventeen pounds and a
grilse of five pounds.

A salmon has properly four stages of existence. The first is as a
"parr," a small bright-looking fish, four or five inches long, with
dark-colored bars across the sides and a row of red spots. It is always
found in the fresh water, looks something like a trout, and will take a
fly or bait eagerly. The second stage is when it puts on the silvery
coat previous to going to sea for