272 MISCELLANEOUS. 



lasso an old she-tiger in one of her native jungles, you can 

 form some idea of what it is to hook one of these fish. But 

 no pen caH describe the scene. You must catch one of them 

 yourself before you can know what magnificent sport it is. 

 Suffice it to say, that after a hard fight of three-quarters of an 

 hour, I so far exhausted him as to bring him alongside the 

 Doat, when Mr. Powers, who had meantime boarded my 

 boat, lifted him in with the gaff-hook. He proved to be one 

 of the same species as the others, the great northern pike, 

 esox lucioides (Agassiz), usually, but incorrectly, termed pick- 

 erel. He measured forty-six inches in length, seven and a 

 half in depth, and four and three-quarters in breadth. I sat 

 there and admired him for some minutes before I was ready 

 to move. I felt all the prouder of my prize for the reason 

 that I had killed him on light tackle ; my outfit being a 

 twelve ounce bamboo bass rod, a number six Milam reel, a 

 number four braided linen line, and a number five spoon. 



Here was glory enough for one day. I had taken the 

 largest fish that has ever yet been taken from this lake, so far 

 as known to the settlers in the vicinity, the largest caught 

 previous to our visit having weighed eighteen and three-quar- 

 ter pounds, and Powers' best one, twenty pounds, and as the 

 rain continued to fall in an almost unbroken sheet, we turned 

 our bow toward camp. Mr. Powers landed another pike 

 while I was playing mine that weighed eighteen pounds. 

 The two struck within a few seconds of each other, for the 

 instant I saw him commence to haul in on his line I felt the 

 first surge at mine. The boats were opposite each other, and, 

 as stated before, only a few yards apart. 



Powers, Thayer and Leroy staid out until three o'clock in 

 the afternoon and returned with ten of these large pike, mak- 

 ing fifteen in all that we had caught in the two days, the 

 smallest of which weighed ten pounds. They also brought in 



