Witb and .Against the Grains 21 



turbid rivers, for clear water is not required for 

 them ; and while the fishermen haul their catches 

 of mullet, pickerel, pike, suckers, etc., would-be 

 grainers keep close watch upon the creeks and 

 ditches. Soon comes the day when the bottoms of 

 creek and ditch may be seen through swift, spar- 

 kling currents, and the word is passed round that 

 " spearin's good." 



Our favorite game was the pike the mottled, 

 shovel-nosed rascal, called " pickerel " in Jersey and 

 in many other places. I do not claim that our name 

 was correct, but it was used to distinguish the fish 

 from its more valuable relative, the pickerel (as we 

 called it), or dore. The latter fish, the wall-eyed 

 pike, " ran " in great numbers in the rivers and was 

 taken by netting. I never saw one in the smaller 

 streams. 



Our "pike" were persistent explorers. They ran 

 up-river in schools, and whenever they discovered 

 the current of a creek or ditch pouring in, some of 

 them would leave the main stream and work their 

 way up the tributary as far as they could swim. 

 Hence it was not unusual to find one or more big 

 pike in a flooded furrow half a field away from a 

 main ditch. If the water suddenly lowered, count- 

 less numbers of the fish were sure to be prisoned 

 in ponds and water-holes, where, as all retreat was 

 cut off, they sooner or later perished. They were 

 given to pushing up the creeks to their sources in 

 wet woodlands, where they would wander through 

 shallow, amber-tinted pools for rods on either side of 

 the channels. 



Here half-submerged logs and fallen stuff afforded 



