318 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



with a foot-stove, and a hole in the ridge of the roof for the 

 spear-handle. This shanty they draw out on the lake, cut a 

 hole through the ice under it, lock the door, and commence 

 spearing all the fish that come near their hole. If the con- 

 stable raps at the door, no reply is meant to signify that the 

 occupant is absent. Thus poachers squat in villages on our 

 lakes in winter when the ice is thick, and spear the fish at a 

 season when they are unwholesome for food. In Canada, for 

 attracting the maskinonge to the spear, in one hand the 

 poacher holds a line attached to an artificial minnow, which 

 he keeps playing in the water, while with the other hand he 

 holds the spear. The maskinonge darts to within a foot of 

 the minnow, and, while hesitating there, the spear takes him. 

 The great Western rivers swarm with fish, and all the way 

 for five hundred miles below the sources of both the Missis- 

 sippi and the Missouri every tributary is a trout-stream. In 

 addition to the pike and pickerel, the glass-eyed pike, doree, 

 or sand pickerel, the gray pickerel, known as the Ohio salmon, 

 there are some half dozen varieties of bass in nearly every 

 Western river, besides perch, sunfish, chub, bream, eels, buf- 

 falo. There are also several varieties of catfish, the most im- 

 portant of which are the black, yellow, and channel cats. 

 The Missouri River is justly celebrated for the latter fish, 

 which runs from five to fifteen pounds each, and, besides yield- 

 ing excellent sport for the rod, is a choice table luxury, equal- 

 ing the salure of the Danube, which is also a species of cat- 

 fish highly 'prized by European epicures. 



THE HAMMER-HEADED SHARK. 



