CHAPTER LVI 

 ORDER OF CATFISHES 



NEMATOGNATHI 



ACQUAINTANCE with this numerous Family usually 

 >L\ begins with the bullhead, which is merely a pygmy 

 catfish. 



Even when a lad in prairie-land, thirsting for open water 

 and aquatics, and looking upon every mile of running water 

 as an enchanted realm, the bullhead did not appeal to me as 

 a genuine fish. Even when most eager to "quit, and go 

 a-fishing, and call it half a day," we drew the line at that 

 ill-shaped, skinny body, ugly head and wide-gaping mouth 

 with barbels that suggest dripping saliva. To me it was, 

 and still is, a repulsive creature, and its only feature worthy 

 of respect is the outfit of sharp and dangerous spines with 

 which its dorsal and pectoral fins are furnished. 



Excepting the big Mississippi catfish, it is the most unat- 

 tractive fish inhabiting our fresh waters, and as an angler's 

 proposition, it is worse than an eel. It is easily taken on 

 a trot-line; and the "trot-line," set for all night across a 

 stream, and hung with about twenty short lines and hooks, 

 represents the lowest depths of depravity in fishing with 

 hook and line. It is even lower than fishing with four poles. 



With a tenacity of purpose worthy of a better species, 



the bullhead ramifies throughout the muddiest rivers and 



268 



