WEkJlIT OF TllK COMMON I'M KKUKI-. •,':2'l 



111 tlir yvdv {'^'.y'^, 1 inyst-lt" took a Picki-rcl wliicli wci^licd 

 firteeu puuiuls three ouiiees, uiiiler Stilhviiter Ihitlge, on the 

 Hiulsou Kiver, while tishinj; tor Bhick Bjiss {(!ri/stes Xii/ricans), 

 with :i hirj;e j^iiiuly fly, ami landed him, after a long and severe 

 strnggle, having only a light tly-rod, and neither gatl' nor 

 landing-net, although I wiw tishing with a Salmon-reel and two 

 hundred yards ot" line. 



I was not at that time sufliciently conversant with minute 

 distinctions to say positively to what species this huge li^h 

 belonged, and I unfortunately took no ni)tcs at the time. 

 According to the best of my recollection, however, it was 

 a longitudinally spotted fish, and if so, was probably a 

 stray Northern Pickerel, which had found his way down the 

 canals, from the basin of the St. Lawnnce, into that of the 

 Hudson. 



And this, which would at tirst seem a highly improbable, if 

 not impossiide hypothesis, becomes at once reasonable, when 

 the fact is known that thne, at least, of the fish peculiar to the 

 great lakes and to the waters of the St. Lawrence, have fouml 

 their way into the Hudson and its tributaries since the opening 

 of the various canals, and are now taken abumlantly within the 

 State of New York — these are the greater Mlack Hass [(irystts 

 \ii/rican:t) ; the (Jswego — not to be confoundeil w ith the Otsego 

 — Bass [Corrina OaruUt) . and the Kock Bass [Criifrarrfius 

 ^■Eneat) . 



Any of these 9|>ccies, in order to reach tin- Hudson, mu>t 

 descend the cauals, and take advantage of the moment when 

 the boats are pasHing through the locks, and the gates opened — 

 which, when we consider the conunotion of the water, the 



