372 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



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 [now General] Wolseley's 

 opening a road to the Red 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 worthy of 

 the sportsman's skill, let him then by all means devote his 

 leisure to the capture of the subject of this chapter ; but I 

 would sooner take one salmon, ay, one trout, than a dozen 

 of these fresh-water sharks. 



But let me shift the scene from the valley of the muddy 

 Ohio River to the pellucid Severn, a feeder of Lake Huron. 

 I was living^ on the confines of civilization literally, for 

 there was but one residence farther north than the house 

 of which I was an inmate, and it was inhabited by a canny 

 Scot, who never knew what it was to take a day's relaxa- 

 tion, his entire energy, early and late, being devoted to the 

 improvement of his homestead. Shortly after my arrival I 

 paid him a visit, but I found that information on shooting 

 matters would have to be obtained through my own exer- 

 tions ; for, more than a complaint against Bruin occasion- 

 ally depriving him of a pig, he knew literally nothing of 

 the sporting capabilities of his neighborhood. It is always 

 pleasant on a new field of operations to obtain a slight 

 inkling of what you may expect. It is far from agreeable 

 to have to draw a charge of snipe-shot, and thus lose time, 

 to substitute B B, or perhaps ball, small game being expect- 



