My Record Muskallunge 285 



rushing around the boat, while the angler gave it the butt 

 savagely; then reeling for his life, he brought it fairly amid- 

 ships, where the sharp gaff of the silent boatman slipped 

 beneath its white neck and held it while it beat the water 

 with lusty blows, and three men, one on the island, cheered 

 insanely. 



Given its quietus, the smiling Bill lifted the splendid fish, 

 and held it that the sun might display its beauties, its tiger- 

 like stripes, its fierce mouth and teeth, its glaring wolf-like 

 eyes. Ah, if I could have taken it! But I had seen its 

 capture, which was something, as a forty-two-pound muskal- 

 lunge is not caught every day on the St. Lawrence, and in 

 many seasons I never took one of this size. 



I fished for days and weeks in quest of this elusive but 

 game fish. I tried for it with gold and silver spoons, which 

 flashed like diamonds in the deep channel near the Canada 

 shore, but always with poor luck, until one glorious day 

 when I hooked and landed after a spirited play a muskal- 

 lunge hardly a foot in length, the dwarf of the tribe. In- 

 deed, I believe it is still the record fish of the St. Lawrence 

 for scurvy meanness of visage, for contemptible size; yet 

 it was a muskallunge, and desperate, I determined to claim 

 all the honors pertaining to such a catch. 



It was the happy custom at Westminster in those days to 

 spread out famous catches on the lawn in front of the hotel, 

 or have them exhibited covered with water lilies, and served 

 whole like the boar's head, with befitting ceremony. More- 

 ever, it was the rule if any one caught a muskallunge to run 

 up a white flag when coming into port, that the admiring 

 and envious inhabitants might gather and see the giant and 

 gaze enviously upon the victorious angler. So I ordered 

 the boatman to hoist the white flag, and as the boat made 

 the beach there was a crowd to receive us. The curious 

 throng drew closer to see the giant yellow perch, bass, 

 suckers, sunfish, wall-eyed pike, and then the muskallunge 

 was laid out, the meanest, puniest fish seen on any river since 



