alled by our
boatmen, "meat hawks," and have less fear of man than any wild birds
that I have ever seen.

We crossed the carrying place of a quarter of a mile around the
rapids, in which distance the river falls some sixty feet, roaring and
tumbling down ledges and boiling in mad fury around boulders. We
entered the Upper Saranac at the hour appointed, and found our tents
pitched and a dinner of venison and trout awaiting us on the island
selected for our encampment.

As the sun sank behind the hills, the breeze died away, and the lake
lay without a ripple around as, so calm, so smooth, and still, that it
seemed to have sunk quietly to sleep in its forest bed. The fish were
jumping in every direction, and while the rest of us sat smoking our
meerchaums after dinner, or rather supper, Smith rigged his trolling
rod, and having caught half a dozen minnows, he with Martin, rowed out
upon the water to troll for the lake trout. These are a very different
fish from the speckled trout of the streams and rivers. They had none
of the golden specks of the latter, are of a darker hue, and much
larger. They are dotted with brown spots, like freckles upon the face
of a fair-skinned girl. They are shorter too, in proportion to their
weight than the speckled trout. They are caught in these lakes,
weighing from three to fifteen pounds, and instances have been known
of their attaining to the weight of five and twenty. It is an exciting
sport to take one of these large fellows on a line of two hundred and
fifty or three hundred feet in length. They play beautifully when
hooked, and it requires a good deal of coolness and skill to land them
safely in your boat. A trolling rod for these large fish should be
much stiffer, and stronger than those used for the fly, on the rivers
and streams; and the reel should be stronger and higher geared than
the common fly reel. Three hundred feet of line are necessary, for the
fish, if he is a large one, will sometimes determine upon a long
flight, and it will not do to exhaust your line in his career. In that
case, he will snap it like a pack-thread. An English bass rod is the
best, and with such, and a large triple action reel, the largest fish
of these lakes may be secured.

Smith had trolled scarcely a quarter of a mile, when his hook was
struck by a trout, and then commenced a struggle that was pleasant to
witness. No sooner had the fish discovered that the hook was in his
jaw, than away he dashe