288 OTHER FISH AND GAME 



for my canoeman to bring the landing-net. On reeling in, the 

 weight seemed to have increased in an extraordinary manner. I 

 at first thought the fish had fouled something ; but a rush like a 

 salmon's changed that idea into great curiosity. After an anxious 

 twenty-five minutes, for the fish several times tried to bolt into the 

 main current, and there were some awkward rock ledges close in, 

 he turned out to be a pike, and a good -sized one. Once within 

 reach, he was easily netted, and was found to weigh ten and one- 

 half pounds. The Wananishe was in his gullet, but the hook had 

 slipped out of the Wananishe's mouth and caught in the socket of 

 the pike's eye inside. I have always wondered why the leader was 

 not cut by his teeth, but suppose it got between them. These pike 

 run to great size in Lake St. John and up the Peribonca." 



In many of the Lake St. John waters, where he has 

 been systematically fished for a few years back, the 

 pike is fortunately very much less abundant than he 

 formerly was. Immense numbers of the fish may 

 still be taken in many parts of Lake St. John, and of 

 very large size, especially near the mouths of the 

 Kiviere au Pipe and the Kiviere au Cochon, between 

 the head of the Grande Decharge and the mouth of 

 the Peribonca, as well as in most of the other waters 

 of this Northern country. 



OTHER FISH 



As already mentioned, the pike is not the only finny 

 foe of the ouananiche. The burbot, which grows to 

 an immense size in Lake St. John, preys in the night- 

 time upon the unsuspecting young of the fresh-water 

 salmon, and specimens of the latter nearly a pound in 

 weight have been found in the stomachs of these 

 prowlers of the deep. Large quantities of burbot are 

 taken through the ice on night-lines in the winter sea- 



