SEA-BASS AND OTHER FISHES. 323 



P. : "lean catch one for you at the landing, most anytime, 

 and save the trouble of carrying it home." 



"All right." 



Judge: "I noticed when that Shark followed the bait, 

 that he took hold like any other fish. Now I often read 

 about a Shark being obliged to turn over on his back before 

 he can take hold. How is that, Pacetti?" 



P.: "Well, as far as I know, they take hold like other fish, 

 and I have caught hundreds of them." 



Judge: "Probably this is another of those popular errors, 

 copied by one ignorant writer from another of the same kind, 

 like the bald-eagle business, professor." 



Professor: "I am glad to have seen, myself, how a Shark 

 takes a bait." 



We fished again in the channel, and got, in the course of 

 half an hour, four Bass, weighing eight, six, five, and five 

 pounds, and then left for home. As we went up the river, 

 P., whose eyes were good, espied a rattlesnake swimming 

 across to the peninsula, and started to cut it off. The snake 

 swam strongly, with head well out of water, and when it 

 found its retreat cut off, it turned and made for the boat. 

 "Why," said the professor, "it is coming on board, I believe." 

 As it came near, looking warlike and formidable, P. caught 

 it a heavy blow with the oar, which disabled it, and it sank. 

 "I never let one pass," said he; "they have killed too many 

 of my dogs." 



"I did not know that a rattlesnake could swim across a 

 wide river like this," said the professor. 



P.: "Oh yes, they do it; they used to be very plenty in 

 this country, but it is settling up too fast now for them to 

 increase much. Last summer a big one, seven feet long, was 

 killed in my door-yard by a gopher-snake." 



Judge: "What kind of a snake is that?" 



P.: "It's a big black snake, seven or eight feet long, that 

 makes war on rattlesnakes and moccasins kills them every 



