A merican Game-Fishes 



clear streams, and in lakes after the au- 

 tumn chill has settled upon them, it loses 

 its muddy flavor, and becomes an accep- 

 table table-fish. Even when the lakes are 

 frozen, it gives sport to those who like to 

 use the spear, or to skate from one " tip- 

 up " to another. But when the trout is 

 out of season, and the bass is in the mud, 

 the pickerel still gives a few days of real 

 angling before the rods are put away for 

 the winter. Best of all, to our taste, is it 

 to seek him in the lake shallows, or in the 

 still reaches of the streams, when the au- 

 tumn haze tempers the glory of the leaves, 

 when the white frost makes the bents crisp 

 under foot, and our pockets shall be heavy 

 with hickory-nuts, even if our creels be 

 light. There is another fish, sometimes 

 called pike or pickerel (and salmon, too, 

 for that matter), which is no pike. It is 

 the wall-eye, or pike perch. It is inter- 

 esting ichthyologically ; it is an excellent 

 table-fish when fresh, and, if caught in 

 quick water (I have known it only in the 

 Nepigon and the Grande Decharge), a 

 good fighter. 



The delights of angling are by no 



means, in our country, bound up with 



the capture of a few kinds of fish. It is 



one of the evidences of the enormous re- 



250 



