WEIGHT OF THE COMMON PICKEREL. 229 



In the year 1838, I myself took a Pickerel wliich weighed 

 fifteen pounds three ounces, under Stillwater Bridge, on the 

 Hudson River, while fishing for Black Bass {Grystes Nigricans), 

 with a large gaudy fiy, and landed him, after a long and severe 

 struggle, having only a light fly-rod, and neither gaft* nor 

 landing-net, although I was fishing with a Salmon-reel and two 

 hundred yards of line. 



I was not at that time sufficiently conversant with minute 

 distinctions to say positively to what species this large fish 

 belonged, and I unfortunately took no notes 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. Lawrence, into that of the 

 Hudson. 



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

 not impossible hypothesis, becomes at once reasonable, when 

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

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

 their way into the Hudson and its tributaries since the opening 

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

 State of New York — these are the greater Black Bass {Grystes 

 Nigricans) ; the Oswego — not to be confounded with the Otsego 

 — Bass {Corvina Oscula) ; and the Rock Bass [Centrarchus 

 jEneas) . 



Any of these species, in order to reach the Hudson, must 

 descend the canals, and take advantage of the moment when 

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

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



