The Merrimack River: its source and its tributaries. Embracing a history of manufactures, and of the towns along its course; their geography, topography, and products, with a description of the magnificent natural scenery about its upper waters./ By J. W. Meader.

TItE MERRIMACK RIVFES;
" Now the question is, how to discover the spot which the poten tate will have chosen. He will have had an eye to the likeliest bit
for securingi flies and worms as they come down the stream, or drop
off trees and bushes. He will have also given careful consideration
for his bodily ease, not liking, generally speaking, to be bored by a
strong current. But I could give the reader more insight into this
question in an hour at the river's side than by any amount of writing.
The still water at the neck of what fishers call the'stre,mm' -that
is, the rough, rapid water as distinguished from the still, or pools -
is a favorite haunt. In summer, when the trout are feeding, the
edges of pools are favorite resorts. There the trout are often lying
in hundreds, digging with their snouts into the banks for worms.
"While there are certain casts that are nearly always good, the
general feeding-ground varies with the weather and season; hence
the great difficulty of arriving at a thorough comprehension of this
most important point. How important, any one may understand
when told that, when really feeding, the trout almost all1 fly to the
same character of water, and while the skilled angler is pulling
them out at every cast, the unskilled one is employed in vainly
thrashing water devoid of a single fin. The meal being finished, or
the shower of flies which induced it having left the water, the trout
then return to the deeps to ruminate and digest, and while this
process is going on he will be a cunning angler indeed who will
induce them to take his lure.
"In warm weather in summer, when the trout begin to feed, they
all leave the deep, and come into the shallowest water,- often into
water so shallow that it hardly covers the backs of the large ones.
The reason of their doing this is, that in the summer flies hover
near the surface of the river, but seldom fall on to it, as they do in
spring, when they are weaker; so that to catch them by a leap the
trout must lie near them. At no time are good trout so little shy,
or so greedy, as when they are lying in water so shallow that none
but the skilful angler ever thinks of throwing a line into it.
"The next point to which I will advert is precision of aim. Suppose you know, as the cuinning angler does, almost to half an inch,
where the maw of his destined victim is placed during his feedingtime, and that you understand how to elude his watchful eye, there
is still something. else to be done before you are successful in a
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