WESTERN CARP, WATER-DOG. 383 



opening which passed under the Ohio and Mississippi rail- 

 road, made similar to a sluice for the purpose of preventing 

 the water in time of floods becoming dammed. During 

 my stay this youngster must have killed a couple of 

 hundredweight. You must not imagine that these were all 

 that were in the net. Sunfish, pike, pickerel, black bass, 

 catfish, mullet, and turtle to a waggon-load rewarded the 

 fishermen's efforts. In the end of the bag, I was about to 

 place my hand upon what I considered a rare prize, when 

 I was stopped by the rough intervention of one of the 

 people, and the exclamation of " You don't want to die 

 before your time ? If he bite you, all the whisky in the 

 country won't save you." (Whisky is considered an infal- 

 lible cure for snake-bites.) This nondescript to be 

 avoided was like Siebold's salamander, with four of the 

 smallest and most awkward-looking legs ; the brute was 

 about fourteen inches long, and was there known by the 

 name of water-dog. It frequently takes the fisherman's 

 bait, who prefers to cut his line and lose the hook to 

 becoming on any more intimate terms. 



COMMON BASS 



Never exceeds a pound in weight, but is more generally 

 captured at about half that weight. In some streams, such 

 as the Niagara, Iroquois, Kankakee, and White River, it 

 positively swarms in such abundance as to become a 

 trouble to the fisherman who desires catching heavier 

 fish. In shape and build they much resemble a well fed 

 English perch, but instead of possessing the same colour- 

 ing, they are of a dark copper shade along the back, which 



