OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 325 



ful man on Big Tink Pond hooked onto a large 

 bass, probably four or five pounds weight; of 

 course the bass jumped up above the water, and as 

 the man was no angler the fish got away on the first 

 plunge. . 



There were several witnesses to this little epi- 

 sode, all of them native farmers, and when the 

 fisherman told of the 



FOUR-FOOT BASS 



none of them even smiled ; they all really believed 

 the fish was four feet long, and I had not the 

 heart to protest, although the largest small-mouth 

 black bass ever caught in those waters weighed but 

 five and three-quarter pounds. 



To satisfy my curiosity I have for years saved 

 the newspaper accounts of wonderful nature 

 stories, and wherever it was possible made personal 

 investigations regarding them, the result being that 

 I am convinced that seventy-five per cent, of these 

 stories are genuine ; 



BUT 



the untrained observers who write them up make 

 the stories unbelievable by attributing wrong mo- 

 tives to the simple acts of animals, or a guess 

 at dimensions so as to make a four-foot rattle- 

 snake seven and even eight feet long. 



I have written for and secured photographs of 

 many 



