THE WOODLAND LAKE 3 



bourhood not contain a single pickerel. In a dozen small 

 lakes scattered over an extent of ten or twelve miles, I 

 have found pickerel in two or three, the remainder being 

 destitute of them. 



The pickerel is not dainty eating ; but it is a valuable 

 fish to the Indians and trappers, owing to the facility 

 with which it may be caught in winter-time. When the 

 lakes are frozen, if a hole is broken in the ice and a live 

 bait used, they may be pulled out as fast as the hooks 

 can be baited ; and it is usual to have many lines in use 

 at the same time. The great difficulty is to discover the 

 spot in the water where the fish are lying. To do this 

 you may have to break a line of holes nearly right round 

 the lake ; but you may rely on it that the fish will always 

 be in large shoals, and that if they once commence to bite 

 you will have good sport. They are not often found in 

 the middle of the lake, but they like twenty or thirty feet 

 of water, and therefore do not come inshore. A fragment 

 of meat may be used as a bait ; but tiny fish, called in 

 Canada minnows and sticklebacks (which they are not), 

 are the best and surest bait. 



In our pond there were two kinds of " bass." There 

 are four kinds found in the fresh waters of this region. 

 They have received the name " bass " from the colonists, 

 and I am not aware that they are misnomered ; but I have 

 not been able to discover the specific name of any of the 

 species mentioned in this account. The two kinds here 

 were the white bass and the striped bass, the latter a 

 handsome fish, but neither running to a greater size than 

 the pickerel. There were also mullet and grey trout, 

 which are often called salmon-trout, and the largest of 

 which that I caught weighed about four pounds ; but in 

 some of the neighbouring streams I caught them of more 

 than double that weight. There were no fish in the pond 

 of a greater weight than four or five pounds ; but in the 

 rivers there were fish of vastly greater size, and also in 

 the large lakes of the district Temiscaming and Grand. 



