WESTERN CARP. 365 



vicinity as the "pond fish." In color it much resembles 

 the beautiful black bass, in shape slender but graceful ; the 

 placement of the fins is the same as in the pike family, but 

 the head is small, and not unlike that of a trout. It is a 

 greedy feeder, and, from its being uneatable (the flesh being 

 hard and, rank), is considered a great bore by the fishermen. 

 Their average weight is from two to four pounds. Still an- 

 other variety with which I had been previously unacquaint- 

 ed was taken, viz., " the Great Western carp," there called 

 " the buffalo-fish." It is frequently captured of enormous 

 size several I have seen over twenty pounds. They are 

 much and deservedly esteemed, and are taken in immense 

 numbers in the spring of the year by spearing ; for as soon 

 as a flood takes place, when the water is rising, they rush 

 out over all the inundated lands, wherever there is sufficient 

 depth for them to swim. For more than an hour one day 

 I watched a lad, spear in hand, who had taken his post over 

 an opening which passed under the Ohio and Mississippi 

 Railroad, made similar to a sluice for the purpose of 

 preventing the water in time of floods becoming dammed. 

 During my stay this youngster must have killed a couple 

 of hundred-weight. 



You must not imagine that these were all that were in 

 the net. Sun-fish, pike, pickerel, black bass, catfish, mullet, 

 and turtle to a wagon-load rewarded the fishermen's efforts. 

 In the end of the bag, I was about to place my hand upon 

 what I considered a rare prize, when I was stopped by the 

 rough intervention of one of the people, and the exclama- 

 tion of "You don't want to die before your time? If he 

 bite you, all the whisky in the county won't save you." 

 (Whisky is considered an infallible cure for snake-bites.) 

 This nondescript to be avoided was like Siebold's salaman- 

 der, with four of the smallest and most awkward-looking 

 legs; the brute was about fourteen, inches long, and was 



