5 



brook chub {Scinotilns atromaculatus Mitchill). or, as we called 

 it, the " horned dace " ; and in both were large schools of shiners 

 {Notropis megalops Rafinesque) and of swzV&xs {Catostotnus teres 

 Mitchill). But in every deep hole, and especially in the mill- 

 ponds along the East Coy creek, the horned pout {Ameiurus 

 melas Rafinesque) swarmed on the mucky bottoms. In every 

 eddy, or in the deep hole worn out at the root of the elm trees, 

 could be seen the sunfish {Lepomis gibbosus Linnsus), strutting 

 in green and scarlet, with spread fins keeping intruders away 

 from its nest. But in the Oatka creek were found neither 

 horned pout nor sunfish, nor have I ever heard that either has 

 been taken there. Then besides these nobler fishes, worthy of 

 a place on every school-boy's string, we knew by sight, if not 

 by name, numerous smaller fishes, darters {Etheostoma flabellare 

 Rafinesque) and minnows [Rhinichthys atronasus Mitchill), 

 which crept about in the gravel on the bottom of the East Coy, 

 but which we never recognized in the Oatka. 



There must be a reason for differences like these, in the 

 streams themselves or in the nature of the fishes. The sunfish 

 and the horned pout are home-loving fishes to a greater extent 

 than the others which I have mentioned ; still, where no 

 obstacles prevent, they are sure to move about. There must 

 be, then, in the Oatka some sort of barrier, or strainer, which 

 keeping these species back permits others more adventurous to 

 pass ; and a wider knowledge of the geography of the region 

 showed that such is the case. Farther down in its course, the 

 Oatka falls over a ledge of rock, forming a considerable water- 

 fall at Rock Glen. Still lower down its waters disappear in the 

 ground, sinking into some limestone cavern or gravel-bed, from 

 which they reappear, after some six miles, in the large springs 

 at Caledonia. Either of these barriers might well discourage a 

 quiet-loving fish ; while the trout and its active associates have 

 sometime passed them, else we should not find them in the 

 upper waters in which they alone form the fish-fauna. This 

 problem is a simple one ; a boy could work it out, and the 

 obvious solution seems to be satisfactory. 



Since those days I have been a fisherman in many waters — 

 not an angler exactly, but one who fishes for fish, and to whose 



