372 GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA. 



dent, as seen in the pictures of Neptune in the Mythologies ; but 

 those who pride themselves on their skill, will use nothing except 

 the small, single-pronged gig, attached to a bamboo cane, eight or 

 ten feet in length. It is by no means an easy thing to gig a trout, 

 for they move with great rapidity, and even when struck, often 

 break away. As the water becomes muddier the perch cease 

 jumping, and appear at the top of the water gasping for breath. 

 The bream soon follow them, and are easily captured with the net 

 or basket, and even with the hand. The sucker is the next to ap- 

 pear, and his curiously shaped mouth is the only part of him to be 

 seen, which at a little distance can, with difficulty, be distinguished 

 from an air bubble. A well aimed blow with the gig, directed a 

 few inches below the seeming bubble, will almost certainly result 

 in his capture. And thus the work goes on until at last the most 

 sluggish of the colony are unearthed, brought to the surface and 

 captured. 



Every bayou has its colony of beavers, and it is frequently 

 necessary to cut their dams, so as to let off the superfluous water, 

 and force the fish into a smaller compass, reducing their feeding 

 grounds, whereby they are more easily taken. The beaver are pre- 

 vented from repairing their dams by hanging up at the breach some 

 article of clothing, or a newspaper. They are a great nuisance, 

 and almost worthless. A short time ago a gentleman in Missis- 

 sippi shipped to St. Louis a pack of seventy-five or a hundred 

 beaver pelts, to a firm who advertised for them. They did not 

 fetch enough to defray expenses (cost of traps and freight). They 

 keep hundreds of acres of land overflowed the entire year, and 

 when their dams are located on bayous that run through fields, 

 they cut down the corn or cotton to keep their dams in repair. The 

 alligators rank next to the beavers as nuisances, being valueless 

 except for their hides and oil, though their flesh is fed to dogs. The 

 female alligator lays her eggs in July. She gathers together all the 

 bushes, sticks, trash, etc., on a spot that does not overflow in sum- 

 mer. She piles it up like a brush heap or hay rick. She then 

 crawls under and deposits her eggs on the ground. She stays 

 about the nest on guard until the young come out, when they go 

 immediately to water, and never return to the nest. They remain 

 with the mother until fall ; then disperse to hibernate. We have 



