402 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



the business and run the canoe into the lake, to keep him beyond 

 the lily stems, for if he had got among them, my tackle would 

 have been no more tlian a cob-web there. So soon as I got sea 

 room I was sure of him, for the line was long though small. He 

 bit as lazily as a sucker, but after that there was not a lazy 

 muscle in him. He fought like a tiger, or rather like a salmon ; 

 several times running away and then running in, repeatedly 

 throwing himself out of water and trying to shake the hook 

 from his mouth, but I managed not to give him an inch of 

 slack. After a long and gallant struggle, he surrendered and 

 rolled over on his side, when I floated him up to the bow of the 

 canoe and Stockton lifted him in without a struggle. He had 

 fought till he was completely exhausted. He was as black as 

 night, excepting on the belly, which was partly gray. He was 

 hump-shouldered and thick meated, and altogether the finest bass 

 I had ever seen. It proved to be 3Iicro2Jteriis ingrecans, Baird. 



The secret was now out. At almost every cast we took a fish, 

 but never felt a bite. More than half of the time Ave were strug- 

 gling with a big fish simultaneousl3^ If it was exciting, sport it 

 was hard work After we had each smashed a tip, we took time 

 to look at the pile in the canoe, and concluded there was enough 

 for that chowder. There were seventeen fish weighing seventy- 

 five pounds. The largest was over six jwunds. When we got 

 to camp, Stockton laid him on a piece of paper, and cut out his 

 profile. It is twenty inches and three lines long and six inches 

 deep, and he was very thick. That was a nice chowder we had, 

 and when the fish was fried with pork it made a hungry man 

 amiable to eat it. 



We reeled'in our lines, and John headed the canoe for camp. 

 As we wei-e passing through the strait, we heard a pack of 

 wolves far away in the woods, but they seemed to be approach- 

 ing, and when about in the middle of the lower lake neai'ly 

 ahead of us we saw a large buck dash from the thicket into 

 the shallow water, which was covered with lily-pads, and rush 

 thi'ough it, slacking his speed, however, as the water deepened. 

 When he reached the edge of the lily-pads, and the deep clear 

 water was right before him, he stopped short, threw high his 

 head, displaying to the best advantage his great branching ant- 

 lers, and looked back and listened at the yelping of his pursuers. 

 The Indian had stopped paddling, not a breath of air was stirring, 

 and the water was as smooth as a mirror, while the bright de- 

 clining sun cast the shade of the tall pines on shore far out upon 



