an hour later, each
fisherman is in a boat paddled softly by a habitant companion. In a
thousand places the calm water is disturbed by the trout feeding busily;
they often throw themselves quite clear of the water and, when the sport
has well begun, at a single cast one occasionally takes a trout on each
of his three flies. Before it is dark the whole circuit of the lake has
been made and a goodly basket of trout is the result.

A camp at evening is always delightful. The tired fishermen lie by the
cheery fire while the men prepare the evening meal, to consist chiefly
of the trout just caught. They have the vivacity and readiness of their
race: rough habitants though they are their courtesy is inborn,
inalienable. After the meal is over silence often falls on the group of
three or four by the fire. Every one is tired and at barely nine o'clock
it is time for bed. Before each of the two or three small tents standing
some distance apart by the water's edge the men have built a blazing
fire which throws its light far out over the tiny lake. All round rise
the mountains, now dark and sombre; a sharp wind is blowing and as one
stands alone looking out over the water there comes a sense of chill;
for a moment the mountain solitude seems remote, melancholy and
friendless: with something like a shiver one turns to the cheerful fire
before the tent. Here blankets are spread on sweet scented boughs of
_sapin_; the bed is hard, but not too hard for a tired man and one
quickly falls asleep.

Other fishing expeditions at Murray Bay take one farther afield and into
more varied scenes. In its upper stretches, three thousand feet above
the sea, the Murray River flows through a level country before it
plunges into mountain fastnesses, almost impregnable in summer, for a
long and troubled detour, to emerge at length into this last valley. To
reach this flat upland one must drive through a beautiful mountain pass
with great heights towering on either side of the winding roadway. In
the upper river the fishing is still unsurpassed. Of small trout there
are vast numbers, excellent for the table, but in the deep pools are
also huge trout, ranging in weight from three to eight pounds. The
surrounding country is open; there are only clumps of scrubby timber;
and the plain is covered with deep moss readily beaten into a hard path
upon which the foot treads silently. Here the bears come to feed upon
the berries and the Canadians have called th