through the tree-tops soon became less and less distinct, and we sank into the dreamless sleep of a good digestion and a clear conscience.

The sun had been up fully an hour the following morning when we sat down to our breakfast of salt salmon cutlets and coffee; but no sooner was it swallowed than we got our tackle in order and commenced the day's sport. It was a lovely morning, warm and not too bright, and the trout fed well for three or four hours; as they then seemed to get rather too particular in their choice of flies, Harry and I sat down under the trees and compared our bags. The average size of the fish seemed to be about a pound and a half or two pounds; Harry had two over five, and I had killed one within an ounce or two of seven pounds, our two bags weighing altogether thirty-one pounds; so we thought we had done pretty well, and consequently felt very pleased with ourselves. After having rested for an hour, and eaten some cold salmon and damper, we lit a digestive pipe and again set to work. Harry went some forty yards above me and took his stand on an almost pointed rock overlooking a large and deep pool in which he said he had seen a 'tremendously big beggar.' Just as I had landed and disengaged my fly from a fat two-pounder, I heard an amazing splash, and on looking up saw a great commotion in the water where my companion had been fishing. Immediately suspecting what had happened, I threw down my rod and scrambled as fast as I could to the spot, and got there just in time to see Harry's face emerge from the centre of the pool. He was far out of his depth, and when I saw him spouting at the mouth like a young whale, and throwing his arms about like a couple of flails, I guessed at once

he couldn't swim. Slipping off my coat, I quickly dropped into the water, and in three or four strokes was alongside my struggling friend, whose head was rapidly sinking lower and lower. Carefully keeping at arm's length to prevent him grappling me, I got hold of his hair (which happened to be very long) and tried to tow him ashore, or at all events into his depth. But I soon found it was a very much harder thing to do than I expected, for the silly fellow would try to get his arms round me; had he succeeded, I believe we should both have gone to the bottom together. As it was, he at length did succeed in getting firm hold of one of my legs, but fortunately at that moment my other foot touched the bottom, and I was safe; in another half minute we were both lying on a flat rock, with the water spurting out of our ears, noses, and mouths in little cascades, and running in streams from our clothes. Neither of us was much the worse for our ducking, except that we lost the best part of that beautiful afternoon going back to camp and changing our things. In the evening we caught a few fish close to the tent, and turned into our blankets almost immediately after dinner. Next day we fished up the river, and arrived about noon at the pool Harry had so unfortunately disturbed, hoping we might still find his tremendously big beggar' in it.

'All right,' exclaimed Harry, in a great state of excitement; 'yonder he lies in the same identical spot.'

Sure enough, on the far side, about two feet from the surface, lay one of the largest trout it had ever been my luck to behold.

'Don't slip off and take a header on the top of him again to-day,' said, I.

'Not if I can help it, old boy,' re

sponded Harry; 'but I must have that beggar somehow.'

Very deftly did Harry drop his fly over the monster's nose, and very skilfully did he work his practised wrist to give the fly the natural movement, and many times did he change the feathered bait; but all in vain. That big beggar' was evidently an ancient and a cunning patriarch, and (as an Irishman would most likely have observed) 'too old a bird to be caught with chaff.'

"The cursed brute's too sulky to rise,' growled Harry, after about his twentieth cast; and I think he would have thrown his rod at the fish if I had not stopped him.

'Let me have a try,' said I.

You may try, and welcome,' answered Harry; 'but I'll bet you the best "square meal" at New Westminster you don't move him, unless you happen to frighten him away,' he added.

Being rather partial to 'spooning." it so happened that I had brought out with me several of those baits, both gilded and plated, and of all sizes; and having the previous day taken my largest fish with one of these spoons, I thought I might just as well see whether this sulky leviathan was to be tempted with the same simple device. Harry had left his rather dangerous station on the pointed rock, and retired (in a somewhat sulky state himself) to a comfortable flat stone under the shade of some thick trees on the bank; so I put down my rod and joined him, to leave the fish quiet a few minutes.

'So you don't think it's worth while trying, eh?" said Harry, when he saw me coming.

'Not a bit of it, my boy. I'm only going to let him rest awhile,' answered I, taking my seat by his side and lighting my pipe.

After waiting eight or ten minutes, I climbed on to the tall rock,

changed my fly for a small spoon put my pipe in my pocket, and prepared for a throw.

The trout had not moved an inch, but lay as motionless and to all appearance as unobservant as

ever.

The first throw I made was rather short, and the fish did not deign to notice the little wobbling bait. Again I made a cast, and again I threw it short.

6

What on earth are you doing?' cried out Harry. 'I never did see a fellow throw a fly like that before; if I didn't know there isn't such a thing in British Columbia, I should think you were trying with a worm.'

'It's a spoon I've got on, my good fellow,' answered I.

'What humbug!' said Harry, who, never having fished with a spoon-bait, held it in great contempt. If you come to that, I'll try my knife and fork.'

'So you shall, my boy, as soon as I've got the old rogue caught and cooked,' said I, as I made another throw, and this time it was far enough.

The spoon dropped a couple of yards beyond and about the same distance above the head of the trout, and I drew it right in front of his very nose. But never a move made he.

'It's no good, I'm afraid,' said I to myself; he really is too sulky.' When, lo, just as the bait was a foot or two this side and about level with the middle of his body, round came his head, whiz went my reel, and I had the splendid 'big beggar' hooked hard and fast. Up the pool he rushed, and down it he darted, till more than once I thought I must have lost him. For half an hour I patiently fought the battle, and it took all I knew to keep him out of the rocky rapid at the lower end of the pool; but Harry helped me considerably in this, for he

rushed into the rapid in the greatest state of excitement, and danced about and shouted and thrashed the water with the butt-end of his rod, to prevent the fish coming down. At last the gallant old fellow was completely tired out, and I was able to tow him within reach of Harry's gaff, and so he was landed on the bank. What a beauty he looked, and what a noise Harry made hurrahing over him! And when, some three hours later, we took the monster to the camp, how the Indian opened his eyes and mouth and stared at him!

'Come,' said Harry, 'hook him on to your scale, and let's see what he weighs-ten pounds I should. think, at least.'

'Draw it mild, my friend,' said I, as I fastened my pocket weighingmachine to a small branch and attached the fish to it; 'a pound under that is nearer the mark, I expect.'

'Nine pounds five ounces!' we both shouted together, the moment the scale was steady.

By thunder! it is a beauty, isn't it?' exclaimed Harry, and he performed atriumphal war-dance round the object of his admiration, till he tripped over a root and fell flat on his back.

I think we both dreamt about that trout for more than one night afterwards.

The following day we again had excellent sport, and bagged altogether quite as many fish as on either of the preceding days; but none over five and a half pounds, and only one of that weight. In the evening the wind suddenly changed, and it came on to rain; so we determined to strike the camp and go back to Hope the next morning, and if the weather cleared up again soon, to fish the Qua-quealla, another mountain stream some four or five miles distant.

We arrived at Hope next day about noon, and as the weather had

not cleared, and showed no signs of doing so, we had to give up any farther idea of fishing for the pre

sent.

'Stay here to-night, and get back to the "City of Stumps" to-morrow, eh?' said Harry.

'That's about it,' I answered. 'But it's most confoundedly unfortunate; it might just as well have kept fine for another day or two.'

The finest of the trout had been carefully put on one side to take back with us, both as presents to our friends at New Westminster and as trophies of our prowess; and a splendid lot they were. First came the tremendous big beggar,' then the seven-pounder, then three between five and six pounds, one four and a half, and three of about four pounds-very nearly half a hundredweight of fish. We must have killed altogether over eighty pounds weight, for we lived almost entirely upon the smaller ones; and the Indian thought nothing of swallowing four or five at a meal, besides enormous quantities of potatoes and bread, after the gorging habit of his fellow-savages when they get the chance of so doing.

As Hope boasted a place called "The Hotel,' we preferred spending the night there to sleeping in our dripping tent. The hotel was a plank house, divided into four rooms-bar-room, eating-room, kitchen, and billiard-room; another house of about the same size standing immediately behind containing the bedrooms. It may seem strange to an Englishman that such a town as Hope, consisting as it did of only about a dozen inhabitants, should contain a billiard-table; but in America, billiards (next to baseball) is the national game; a drinking saloon is the first building erected in a new 'city,' or at new diggings, or, in fact, at any new locality where there is the slightest chance of anybody coming, and no

saloon is without at least one billiard-table. Every American can play the game more or less, and most of them much more than less.

At six o'clock a bell was violently rung outside the hotel door by the man-of-all-work, and the host, with whom Harry and I were having 'a drink,' informed us supper was on the table; so we adjourned to the next room, where we found a repast of salt salmon and potatoes, and one of our own four-pound trout. The company at this table d'hôte consisted of the host, two Mexican mule-train packers, Harry and myself, and the man-of-allwork, who sat down to eat as soon as he had dished up, evidently considering himself as good a gentleman as anybody, and perhaps rather better. He might have been, though I certainly should never have guessed it, either from his appearance or manners, and most decidedly not from his conversation. I did once meet a man, who was employed to wash the dishes at an hotel in Victoria, who had been a high wrangler at Cambridge, and was the son of a very wealthy country gentleman; at least so the Archdeacon of Victoria (who was dining with me at the identical hotel) informed me. After supper we played sundry games of billiards, two or three rubbers of whist, smoked a few pipes, and then retired to the next house to enjoy once more the luxury of a bed, such as it was.

Next day we went by the steamer, on its return from Yale, back to New Westminster, having most heartily enjoyed our three days' fishing. The 'big beggar' was sent as a present to the Governor, and Harry and I had the pleasure of seeing it adorn his Excellency's dining-table the following evening.

A week or two afterwards I went across the Gulf of Georgia to Victoria, V.I., en route home; but it so happened that I remained all

the following winter on Vancouver Island, and naturally learnt something of the various fish caught by the Indians in the Gulf of Georgia, which divides Vancouver from British Columbia, and the other waters which wash the coasts of the island; so I will just add a few words on the subject.

As soon as the steamer cleared the mouth of the river Fraser, I saw what I imagined to be huge stakes sticking out of the water, and thought at first they had been placed on the sandbanks to mark the channel; but to my astonishment I presently saw they were all slowly moving about.

'What ever are those things?' said I to a man standing beside me. 'Only fin-backed sharks,' answered he.

But they were nothing of the kind. I afterwards found out that they were a small species of whale with a long pointed back fin which stuck up some eight or ten feet, but I never saw one close.

The halibut is the largest flat-fish caught on these coasts, sometimes attaining a size of nearly four hundred pounds weight.

The Indians catch them in much the same way as they do sturgeon, excepting that when the halibut comes to the surface after being hooked, they spear it with a long spear which has a shorter one made to fit on it, and to the short spear is attached a skin blown full of air; when the fish is struck, the long haft is jerked from the short spear, and the skin-buoy prevents the unfortunate halibut swimming down again.

There are other kinds of flat-fish caught at the mouth of the Fraser river and on other sandy flats on the coast, but not anything approaching the size of the halibut.

The dog-fish (Acanthius suckleyi) grows to a large size on this coast and is found in great numbers, par

ticularly in the inlets and tidal waters. Although looked upon as a nuisance by white fishermen, to the natives this fish is far from unwelcome; they obtain a very fine oil from the liver, and consume it as one of the most wholesome and favourite articles of food.

The herring (Malletta cœrulia) comes into the Gulf of Georgia, and to the entrance of the Fraser, in vast quantities during the months of March and April, and continues arriving at intervals during most of the summer months. April, however, is the time when the chief run is made, and then every inlet on the coast is full of them. They are caught in the same way as the candle-fish, and also with a kind of landing-net with which the natives ladle them into the canoes. The Indians consider the herring spawn a great delicacy, and also the oil, which they make in great quantities from this fish.

The true cod-fish is sometimes taken in the northern part of the Gulf of Georgia; but either the fish is scarce or the Indians don't fish in water deep enough to catch many, for few are brought to either New Westminster or Victoria.

Rock-cod (Sebastes inermis) are about the most common fish caught in these seas, and vary from half a pound to ten pounds or more in weight. They are of a bright yellowish-brown colour, and by no means handsome; but they are general favourites on the table, and always sell well. For my own part, I found them soft and watery, so I cannot concur in the public opinion.

The chirus (Chirus hexagrammus) is nearly as common as the rockcod, though a very different fish both to the palate and to the eye; it grows to about four pounds in weight, and equals a dolphin in beauty of colour, and a trout in delicacy of flavour. There are two

or three other sorts of chirus, but

the above-named 'six-lined' is the most common. Like the rock-cod it is taken with a hook and line.

The large cuttle-fish, or octopus, that horror of Victor Hugo's, also dwells amongst the rocks along the coasts of British Columbia and Vancouver. Some over a dozen feet across (from the tip of one arm to the tip of that opposite) are often speared by the Indians, and an octopus of this size could pull the strongest man down as easily as an elephant with his trunk can pull down the slender bough of a tree.

The viviperous fish (Ditrima) is one of the greatest curiosities found in the Pacific (or indeed any other) waters; for instead of the young being produced from spawn in the usual fish-like manner, they are brought forth 'all alive, O!' and immediately swim about and feed as if they knew all about it. This peculiar fish comes into the shallower waters along the coasts of British Columbia and Vancouver Island at the commencement of summer, and remains in vast numbers till September, when (with its juvenile progeny) it again returns to the warmer and deeper sea. It varies both in size and appearance; the sort most commonly taken in the Gulf of Georgia goes by the name of 'perch' and is a most beautifully marked bright blue fish. I never had a chance of tasting one, but was told the 'viviper' was hardly worth the trouble of cooking, so I probably lost but little.

Not being given to ingratitude, I cannot leave unnoticed the oysters and crabs which dwell in these waters; for have I not oftentimes swallowed many dozens of the little Vancouver oysters? And have I not refreshed myself many a night with a delicious crab supper, which (thanks to my British Columbian training) did not entail nightmare?

The oysters are extremely small, not much more than half the size