The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1879-07-21

When the salmon first come into the
| river from the salt ater they are gorg
! with capelin, sand-eelss shrimp. and other
seaIood. Their arrival is indicated by the
splashes which they maize in leaping from
! the .Water. In the height OF the season as
many as City are seen is the air together.
| It has even been asserted with some empha-
sis that on a certain year they kept the oc-
cupauts OF the camp awake at night with
their nsise, which was like falling boulders
pumDiEg into the water from the heights
opposite. When the tish come all is excite
ment at the camp. Up goes the bunting
from the fagstatls on the tower and pro-
moutory, and all the gaffe,s come up from
the hamlet below to the camp. A boat is
assigned to each gafer, and each doughty
knight of the rod comes forth en- grand
snsae, and takeE his place in the bow, pre-
pared for q fair han -tO.hand, stand-up fight
with the salmon. The results will be duly
recorded in the evening on the bulletir-
slate which hangs at the end of the cottage.
All the CATERS are Frenchmen, and the
angler who cannot parley few words (un
pea) will be likely to stand at the tail OF the
list. Now we are all ready" Montez, q la
roche, a hGut." ....'.
Tue Godbout river heads in Minecuagan
lake, whence also flows the Mineconegan
river in asouthwesterly direction toward the
St. Lawrence. Its sixty miles in length, but
only two miles Of it are suitable for rod.
fishing. From its source to its mouth it is
turbulent stream, tumbling through
gloomy mountain gorges with 4 continued
precipitnus pitch, and pling itself into bill
lows .! foam against huge boulders, which
obstruct It's tortuous channel. It'seems a
marvel how the salmon can ever work their
way to their spawning-groundsi in the up
per stream. The limit Of the fishing is at
what is called the Upper Pool" where
the long-pent waters rush down through
canon sixty feet deep. with al i'm
petuous discharge, and spread out into 0
broad basin just under the shadow o. an
impending mountain. After Whirling
awhile in an inky eddy, flcckel with bub>
bles and foam, it jams itself against con-
fronting cliff, and then dashes of again as
inipetuously as before, though in a broader
and more shallow channel. Below, the
shores are nearly vertical all the way, and
fringed with trees. The bed is choked with
| boulders and the air is damp with the spray
| which rises from churniug waters. 1t is
whiteness all the way to the camp. save
where temporary pauses are made at the
pools, which have no doabt are most ac-
ceptable and necessary ialting-places for
the salmon in their tedious ascent. Follow
ing the river, path has been constructed
through the woods with much difficulty
and expense so as to communicate with
the pools. Trees. have been chopped
away, rocks blasted out, bewn logs
1fsirctched across chasms, boiows filled
iup with stones and earth. hand-rais
| placed where the brink is dizzy
and the, footing precarious, ietties OF stone
buiat.np around projecting cliffs which bar
4 tue passage. There are drinking-cups at
the cold wayside springs which tricke down
| the moss-gro wn rocks. AT two Of the bools
loHg reaches Of ladders are laid over the
boulderS in the foaming midstream so as to
reach to points Of vantage for casting. at
other pools bests are moored for special
service there. Halfway ;dowR, the stream is
crossed by q rope ferry which swings YOU
across the foot OF rapid toa landing cut in
the solid rock, whence an iron railing as
ststs the ascent up the bank. The expense Of
aiiahese improvements was fully thousand
dollars. Oh! this is the luxury OF salmon
fishing, indeed. In my ignorance, begotten
t'o1 limited experience, i had imagined the
most difficult salmon sriver;to be no more
fish, having BEEN secured Big a long line
defieately cast and manipulated. was handily
BROUGHT to GAIT, or If sperchanee he ran into
the gently ripping rapids below. then to be
followed By o Eastys ( base over the slippery
stones. and peradfenture q wetting In the
ioWerssttpau. i had never thoEght Of saw.
ING n .dsh in mill-race. and even shud-
iiereds fat the possibility Of hooking one
there. Here ills diff erent ms I shall prove
III Al additional letter, for This is already
.too-long spun. II 4 49, HALLoCK.
s This WAS The year e74. The lessees asd their
friends left early and the river was subsequently
fshtd by Nicholas Comeau, the river guardian, who