128 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK 



Pickerel, I am impressed witli the idea that there are two 

 other species in Lake Ontario. The large fish called the 

 " Blue Pike" or " Black Pike," found in Pennsylvania and 

 Virginia, west of the Alleghanies, which equals the Masca- 

 longe in size, and another species found in the Ohio and its 

 tributaries, I have never seen properly described or pictured. 



Frank Forester, in his remarks on the Esocidse, assigns the 

 Great Garfish of the Southern and Western States to this 

 family, calling it " Esox osseus^ There can be no generic 

 affinity between the two. The Gar (Lepidosteus), as I have 

 remarked on a preceding page, is one of the few representa- 

 tives of the ancient order of Ganoids remaining at the present ; 

 while the Pikes, according to Hugh Miller, were not ushered 

 into existence until perhaps millions of years after. Even if 

 they had been cotemporaneous in Creation, the two orders, 

 being so entirely different, would not admit of such classifi- 

 cation. 



In the waters along the Gulf of Mexico, Gars are frequently 

 an annoyance to the fisherman; they appear sometimes in 

 numbers, scaring away other fish, taking off one's bait, and 

 often cutting the line with their sharp teeth, while there is 

 hardly a possibility of hooking them in their hard bony jaws. 

 I have tried frequently to secure one, but was never success- 

 ful. A friend has since told me of a way of taking them, in 

 which he says the negroes are more fortunate ; he describes 

 it thus : — A noose is made by passing a string through a fish 

 of suitable size, say of seven or eight inches, lengthj^vise, 

 which can be done with a long baling-needle, and then 

 through a loop at the other end of the string, where it is tied 

 to the tip of a long pole or stout reed. The fish is adjusted 

 so as to form the base of a triangle, the slip-knot being at the 

 upper angle, nearest the pole. This triangular snare is then 

 displayed on the surface of the water, and dabbled up and 



