od hurried down to the pool and cast a fly upon the
water.

XV. GEORGE'S DREAM

Since the weather had become colder we always fished with bait, if any
were available, and so, when after a few minutes a small trout took
Hubbard's fly, he made his next cast with a fin cut from his first
catch. Before he cast the fly, George and I ran the canoe through the
rapid to a point just below the pool where we had decided to camp.
Then, leaving George to finish the work of making camp, I took my rod
and joined Hubbard. All day long, and until after dusk, we fished. We
got sixty. But they were all tiny, not averaging more than six inches
long.

The test of our fortunes was not encouraging. Hubbard especially was
disappointed, as he had been cherishing the hope that we might catch
enough to carry us well down the trail. And what were sixty little
fish divided among three ravenous men! We ate fifteen of them for
luncheon and eighteen for supper, and began to fear the worst. The pea
meal now was down to one and a half pounds.

It was late when we gave up trying to get more fish, but we sat long by
the fire considering the possibility of finding scraps at the camp down
the Beaver where we had killed the caribou on August 12. The head, we
remembered, had been left practically untouched, and besides the bones
there were three hoofs lying about somewhere, if they had not been
carried off by animals. We knew that these scraps had been rotting for
two months, but we looked forward hopefully to reaching them on the
morrow.

No lovelier morning ever dawned than that of Saturday (October 10th),
and until midday the weather was balmy and warm; but in the afternoon
clouds began to gather attended by a raw west wind. While George and I
shot the rapids, Hubbard fished them, catching in all seventeen little
trout. Some of the rapids George and I went through in the canoe we
should never, under ordinary conditions, have dreamed of shooting. But
George expressed the sentiments of all of us when he said: "We may as
well drown as starve, and it's a blamed sight quicker." Only when the
river made actual falls did George and I resort to portaging. However,
we did not make the progress we had hoped, and much disappointed that
we could not reach Camp Caribou that night, we camped at the foot of
the last fall above the lake expansion on the shore of which George and
I had ascended a hill to be rewarded with a splendid view of the
c