248 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



LASSOING A STURGEON 



Some years ago three smelters were rowing up 

 Breydon, when one of them, known as "Snicker" 

 Larn, espied something floating upstream that 

 struck him as being very much like a bush. Curiosity 

 prompted him to steer for it, when, to his surprise, 

 he discovered it to be a large Sturgeon, to all 

 appearances " asleep " upon the surface. Cautiously 

 the boat approached it while Larn made a running 

 noose. This he adroitly slipped over the tail of the 

 fish and pulled tight. At this it suddenly started 

 and swam away as in terror, pulling the boat some 

 yards along with it. To the smelters 1 annoyance, 

 the noose slipped, and the fish for a while continued 

 its exercise. When it became quiet again, however, 

 it was once more lassoed. "I took care it didn't 

 slip this time," said Larn to me. The fish again 

 dashed off, pulling the boat fully a hundred yards. 

 By this time the men had shortened the rope 

 considerably, and managed to get alongside the fish, 

 when they belaboured its head with a "wriggler," 

 a kind of small iron crowbar much in use at one 

 time for disturbing worms by " wriggling " it in the 

 turf. Having stunned their prize, they hailed another 



