378 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



that had succumbed to his skill. During that visit I 

 hooked a monster, and although I twice succeeded in 

 bringing him alongside the boat, I had to suffer the 

 annoyance of seeing him go off with several yards of 

 my tackle. From the position I was in, I was obliged 

 to treat the foe very cavalierty, for the bottom is full 

 of decayed timber, and the limbs of a fallen tree half 

 bridged the water down stream, to gain which my foe 

 made the most determined efforts. 



To state the size of this pike correctly would be a 

 difficult matter ; still, from my lengthened experience, 

 I can form an approximate estimate, and do not be- 

 lieve I exaggerate when I say he must have exceeded 

 forty pounds. 



In Southern Illinois, on the tributaries and ponds 

 margining the Wabash, I have killed some very large 

 pike, but here they were not generally so well fed, or 

 so strong as those of the North. 



In Iowa I have also been very successful in cap- 

 turing this fish, but in that state they do not run so 

 large in my experience as in the more Eastern waters. 



In the Lake of the Woods (a few years ago if I had 

 spoken of this distant sheet of water, I would have 

 been laughed at, but, thanks to Colonel Wolseley open- 

 ing a road to the Bed River and the Settlement of 

 Manitoba, it is now within easy access). I was 

 informed by a half-breed residing at Fort Garry that 

 its waters teemed with gigantic pike that had but to 

 be tried for to obtain. From my knowledge of the 

 marshy nature of the country that surrounds this 

 silent sheet of water, I have little doubt that my 

 informant spoke the truth. 



When no other fishing is to be obtained more 



