VERGE OF CIVILIZATION. 391 



this fish, but in that State they do not run so large in my 

 experience as in the more Eastern waters. 



In the Lake of the Woods (a few years ago if I had 

 spoken of this distant sheet of water, I would have been 

 laughed at, but, thanks to Colonel Wolseley opening a 

 road to the Bed River and the Settlement of Manitoba, it 

 is now within easy access), I was informed by a half- 

 breed residing at Fort Garry that its waters teemed with 

 gigantic pike that had but to be tried for to obtain. From 

 my knowledge of the marshy nature of the country that 

 surrounds this silent sheet of water, I have little doubt 

 that my informant spoke the truth. 



When no other fishing is to be obtained more 

 worthy of the sportsman's skill, let him then by all 

 means devote his leisure to the capture of the subject 

 of this chapter : but I would sooner take one salmon, 

 aye, one trout, than a dozen of these fresh-water sharks. 



But let' me shift the scene from the valley of the muddy 

 Ohio river to the pellucid Severn, a feeder of Lake Huron. 

 I was living on the confines of civilization literally, for 

 for there was but one residence further north than the 

 house of which I was an inmate, and it was inhabited by 

 a canny Scot, who never knew what it was to take a day's 

 relaxation, his entire energy, early and late, being devoted 

 to the improvement of his homestead. Shortly after my 

 arrival I paid him a visit, but I found that information on 

 shooting matters would have to be obtained through my 

 own exertions ; for, more than a complaint against Bruin 

 occasionally depriving him of a pig, he knew literally 

 nothing of the sporting capabilities of his neighbourhood. 



