FISHING IN THE OHIO. 127 



after you have set it, the water has not risen too much, the swinging of 

 the willow indicates that a fish has been hooked, and you have only to 

 haul the prize ashore. 



One evening I saw that the river was rising at a great rate, although 

 it was still within its banks. I knew that the White Perch were running, 

 that is, ascending the river from the sea, and, anxious to have a tasting of 

 that fine fish, I baited aline with a cray-fish, and fastened it to the bough 

 of a tree. Next morning as I pulled in the line, it felt as if fast at the 

 bottom, yet on drawing it slowly I found that it came. Presently I felt 

 a strong pull, the line slipped through my fingers, and next instant a 

 large Cat-fish leaped out of the water. I played it for a while, un- 

 til it became exhausted, when I drew it ashore. It had swallowed the 

 hook, and I cut off the line close to its head. Then passing a stick 

 through one of the gills, I and a servant tugged the fish home. On 

 cutting it open, we, to our surprise, found in its stomach a fine White 

 Perch, dead, but not in the least injured. The Perch had been lightly 

 hooked, and the Cat-fish, after swallowing it, had been hooked in the sto- 

 mach, so that, although the instrument was small, the torture caused by it 

 no doubt tended to disable the Cat-fish. The Perch we ate, and the Cat, 

 which was fine, we divided into four parts, and distributed among our 

 neighbours. My most worthy friend and relative, Nicholas Bekthoud, 

 Esq., who formerly resided at Shippingport in Kentucky, but now in 

 New York, a better fisher than whom I never knew, once placed a trot- 

 line in " the basin" below " Tarascon's Mills," at the foot of the Rapids 

 of the Ohio. I cannot recollect the bait which was used ; but on taking 

 up the line we obtained a remarkably fine Cat-fish, in which was found 

 the greater part of a sucking pig ! 



I may here add, that I have introduced a figure of the Cat-fish in 

 Plate XXXI. of my first volume of ray Illustrations, in which I have 

 represented the White-headed Eagle. 



