THE PIKE PERCHES. 



"When there are from fifty to one hundred lines out, and the fish are biting 

 freely, it is exciting sport to fly from one quivering signal to another, for 

 it is often that four or six are in the air at one time. The number of fish 

 thus taken every winter is very great, amply supplying local demands, and 

 the fish are much larger than those caught in summer. 



"As an angler and naturalist," continues Dr. Estes, "it was many 

 years before I became reconciled to catching the wall-eyed pike from off 

 their spawning beds in the winter and spring. Three considerations finally 

 forced reconciliation, (i) There existed in the lake a great number of 

 these fishes, (2) comparatively few could be taken in summer by the ap- 

 proved method of angling, (3) unless taken through the ice a great amount 

 of cheap and wholesome fish-food could not be utilized. 



"Notwithstanding these arguments I cannot but feel condemned for my 

 conclusions, when I see hundreds of these fishes daily, every one filled with 

 spawn enough to stock an inland sea. 



"One other method is resorted to. This is the Indian ])lan of spearing 

 through the ice from under a teepe or daily shanty. A decoy minnow is 

 kept in motion until the fish is enticed into sight, when the cruel and 

 deadly spear descends and fastens its barbed truss firmly in the flesh. The 

 method is worthy alone of the Indians who invented it.*" 



Closely allied to the Pike-Perches is the log-perch, Po-cina caprodes, 

 also known as the "Rock-fish," and " Hog-fish." It is the largest of a 

 large group of little perch-like fishes called "Darters" or Ethcostona- 

 tidiB. "Thesefishes" writes Jordan, " may be described as little perch, re- 

 duced in size and compacted, thus fitted for a life in rocky brooks, where the 

 water is too shallow, swift and sterile to support larger fish. All the Darters 

 are brilliantly colored, and all have a way of lying quiescent on the bottoms, 

 resting on their large fins, and then suddenly darting away for a short dis- 

 tance when disturbed. They are carnivorous, feeding chiefly on insects 

 and crustaceans. Only one of them, Pcrcina cap-odes, is large enough 

 to take the hook. This one is often found on the urchin's string, but it 

 cannot be said to have any economic value. The others are too small for 

 the urchin even, and although, according to Rafinesque, ' they are good 

 to eat fried,' few people think it worth while to cook them. Darters are 

 found in all fresh waters of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, 

 but all the species are peculiar to America." 



*St. Paul Pioneer Press, Jan., iSSi. 



