VARIOUS IN SHAPE AND COLORS. 289 



pike is one of the most important commercial fishes of the 

 lakes. 



THE GLASS-EYED OR WALL-EYED PIKE. 



v The glass-eyed pike of the rivers in New York is very sat- 

 isfying game to the angler. He prefers the live shiner as a 

 bait, and is generally found at the foot of a rapid, watching 

 for any lame or disconcerted fish which appears not to know 

 how to take care of itself. The best way to angle for them, 

 therefore, is to anchor your boat at the side or above a rapid; 

 use shiner bait, and cast to the foot of the rapid, or let your 

 bait run down the rapid, for they sometimes lie behind huge 

 rocks in the rapid. Use regular striped-bass tackle and fish 

 with a float. The pike of the Mohawk River are supposed to 

 be the best for the table. Th3 meat is hard, and laminates 

 in rich flakes, possessing a peculiar flavor most tempting as a 

 breakfast dish. Those fish which run from three to nine 

 pounds are the best for the table ; but they have been taken 

 at the Little Falls to the weight of nearly twenty pounds, 

 and proved to be a superior fish for stuffing and baking. 



The scales of the glass-eyed pike are hard, close, and diffi- 

 cult to detach. The mandibles are wider and the jaws 

 stronger than those of the pike or pickerel, while its teeth are 

 shorter and closer set. It is dark gray, with greenish tint on 

 the back, gray sides with yellowish tinge, and white abdo- 

 men. The numerous shoals of this fish in American waters 

 renders it common and unappreciated, but it is really one of 

 the best table-fishes of the rivers. **' 



There is another family of glass-eyed pike, known in Ohio 

 and Western Virginia as the salmon. It resembles the pike 



T 



