182 THE STURGEON". 



wooden fish-hook is now amongst the things that 

 were, its place having been supplied by its 

 civilised Birmingham brother, bartered by the 

 Indians from the Hudson's Bay Company. The 

 fishing line is either made of native hemp, or the 

 inside bark of the cypress-tree spun into cord. 

 The bait is a long strip cut from the under- 

 side of a trout, at one end of which the point of 

 the hook is inserted ; the strip being then wound 

 tightly and evenly round the hook, and up the 

 line about three inches, the silvery side outer- 

 most. It is then firmly whipped over with 

 white horsehair, a pebble slung on as a sinker, 

 and the deception is complete. Five or six long 

 barbed spears are stowed away in the canoe, the 

 line coiled carefully in the bow, and the baited 



ti 



hook laid on it. Two wily redskins man this 

 frail bark, the paddler squatting on his heels 

 in the stern, the line-man standing in the bow. 



A few skilful turns of the paddle sends the 

 canoe to the mudbank on which King Stur- 

 geon is dozing, and awaiting his matin or ves- 

 per meal. The dainty-looking morsel, bearing 

 all the external semblance to a fish (but, like 

 the Trojan horse, pregnant with mischief), sinks 

 noiselessly and slowly to the bottom ; the canoe 

 drifts with the current, and in this manner the 



