subject to in clear water, in which you may see that the fish acknowledge the rareness of your imitations by a backward and bashful respect, and might be tempted to a nearer inspection of them-if they did not see the sting at their tails.

If you see an experienced, elderly gentleman catch a good fish, that is the place for you. Go to it immediately : the closer to him the better. His fish may have relations looking for it. The gentleman may be a leetle crusty, but it is mere jealousy.

When you begin, hold your breath, lest you frighten the fish. If you do occasionally draw it the harder in consequence, still it will be only at intervals. Slip stooping along the edge of the bank; and as your head and body will naturally incline in a graceful curve over the water, extend your left hand cunningly behind you over the bank. This will serve to preserve your balance, and may chance, upon occasion, to save you from falling into the water, by enabling you to catch a bush, if there should be one just in the way.

Throw always a very long line. That is a point of emulation amongst crack hands when necessary. If you feel any difficulty about it, and be apt to catch the ground, or get it into troublesome knots, or coil it about your own body, these may, perhaps, be avoided by every time carrying back the fly and line to their utmost stretch, and laying them out straight on the ground behind you, and then taking up the rod, and whipping them over your head. But this mode is not infallible; and it requires that patience and perseverance said to be possessed by the true angler only.

When you come amongst trees, it may be well to give your rod and line a free sweep round your head, in order to see whether they are within reach of your hook, and to clear the way for subsequent casts-if your tackle be strong enough. If by this means you become hooked in the branches (which may happen), you will get free at once by a smart pull, and save time. If you don't find this method answer, you will adopt some other next time.

Use a large, strong rod. As it is exercise that is wanted by the gentlemanly angler, it will give you considerably more than a small one. It will also enable you to play the fish, as it is called, by suspending him beneath heaven and earth, like the sign of the gilded rod and trout, which first excited your piscatory propensities.

Take a line of corresponding weight, and be sure to make it tell on the water, at every throw; else how are the fish to be made aware of your being there, so as to give you the desired opportunity?

Whip the fish out of the water at once, if they are heavy enough to be worth while. If you succeed in doing so, you make sure of them, which is the essence of the business. If they won't come, you will at least break off and get away yourself, which is the next consideration; for we need not say it would be both troublesome and dangerous to be caught against your will by Mr. Scales, instead of catching him.

If the fish make a rush away with the line, of course you know how to stop him. Seize the line with your hand, and pull him up. It's odds but you prove the stronger-if nothing gives way.

There are some impertinent people to be met with;

that's a fact. If any such ask whether you caught all your fish yourself, you need not give a direct answer (unless you did), but may ask, in return, if he thinks you didn't, or the like. If you have been accompanied by a skilful friend, who, through some unaccountable luck, has been more successful than you, it is more easily managed, and you may, perhaps, get the credit of an equal share of the whole take, by letting fall such an expression as "We caught so and so." If you have had only your own individual exertions to trust to, and these by singular bad luck have enabled you to capture but one, or perhaps a couple, of young and inexperienced thumbkins, it is surely consistent with the strictest propriety to say you have caught "a few," -for you cannot call them more.

Never allow any brother of the angle to outcrow you on the subject of his piscatory exploits. Even although he should produce more fish in his basket than you, yet remember not to forget (which fishermen are sometimes apt to do) those of large size which you hooked (and that is really the catching of them), although they were afterwards lost by some mere accident or other, just when you intended to get them out of the water.

If you have fished the whole day without a rise, it is a sign that the fish are not taking. You may safely put off your sport till another opportunity.

LA BELLE TOLOTAH.

BY M. H. PERLEY, ESQ.

We were several days in ascending the Obscache; at times paddling swiftly along its rich alluvial banks, covered with luxuriant vegetation, beside which the deep, dark waters of the river flowed with gentle current; and then, again, toiling and struggling up a boiling rapid, in some narrow, rocky pass, where the pent-up waters were broken and lashed into foam, ere they regained their usual steady and placid course. On one occasion we encountered a rapid which, although long and violent, ran quite straight, and our Indians insisted that we could surmount it without a décharge; but in this they seemed likely to be mistaken, for twice we nearly gained the top, yet on each occasion had we failed, and been compelled to return to the bottom, and recommence the ascent. Before starting for the third time, the trim of the canoes was altered, and we moved up the lower half of the rapid very slowly; then, by desperate efforts of strength, combined with great skill and dexterity, we succeeded in getting over the upper pitch, and pushed into an eddy, where we paused to take breath. The rocks here were of fine grey sandstone, lying horizontally in thin sheets, with the different layers very distinctly marked; and as the banks of the stream were quite perpendicular, they bore much resemblance to a lofty stone wall of ancient workmanship. From between two

of the layers of sandstone we observed a jet of water, gushing out with considerable force, and, as it looked cool and inviting, we landed to refresh ourselves with a draught from the living spring. Cups were hastily filled, and eagerly quaffed; but, oh! what grimaces and contortions followed! It was a powerfully impregnated mineral spring, destitute of smell, but, when swallowed, of great effect, and we had the satisfaction of being treated to an aperient draught, quite gratuitously and unexpectedly.

In ascending the river we found abundance of small trout everywhere, and amused ourselves with taking them from the canoes as we glided along, and in shooting whatever came in our way. We met with numbers of the tee-tee-squass, the green sandpipers, which, during the summer season, frequent the margins of inland streams, where they are generally found in pairs. They run very swiftly along the shores, and often into the shallows of the water; for they can swim a little, their feet being partially webbed, and the feathers, on the under part of their bodies, close and waterproof, like those of the swimming birds. The tee-tee-squass, as the Milicetes call them, are noisy birds, yet the shrill and wailing cries they utter are rather pleasant, as they serve to break the silent stillness of the lonely streams. We shot them as they flitted from side to side of the river, always, when disturbed, flying up the stream, and so keeping before us; they were exceedingly fat, and most delicious eating. When not torn by the shot, and carefully stripped of the feathers, and dressed, their bodies looked very like little lumps of butter.

Occasionally we landed to shoot pigeons, and amuse