NORTHERN INLAND FISHES. 283 



hook. A good table fish. Night fishing with a lantern or torch 

 ■s the most successful for all kinds of catfish. 



THE CYPRINID.E. 



The family of Cyprinidas is a very large one, and includes the 

 carp, sucker, dace, chub sucker, mullet sucker, and many other 

 species which are found scattered all over the country from New 

 England to Arizona ; being often the only inhabitants of waters 

 too warm or muddy for the more esteemed varieties of fishes. 

 Scarcely any of them merit attention as game fish, although some 

 are quite edible, and a few afford fair sport to the angler. 



The Cyprinidse also include the shiners, minnows, killifish, and 

 other small fry that are much valued as baitfish, and readily com- 

 mand a cent a-piece in many known angling resorts. Their eco- 

 nomic value to the fisherman is therefore considerable, and it is well 

 to know that they may be caught either with gauze or mosquito 

 nets along the margins of still waters where they congregate in 

 large numbers, being often found in company with the perch, 

 roach and bass. They are also caught with minute hooks and 

 linen thread, with bread dough, and red worms as bait. 



Some of the suckers of which there are many varieties, afford 

 much sport when snared. The snare is a running loop of fine 

 brass wire attached to the end of a pole, and the method employed 

 to capture the fish is, to beat the water with long siticks, turning 

 up logs and large stones, tossing stones into the holes, et cetera, 

 so as to drive the fish from under the banks and' other hiding 

 places into the mid-stream, where they can be readily seen. They 

 will lie quietly on the bottom for awhile after being disturbed, and 

 then the snarer passes the wire loop cautiously over their heads, 

 and dexterously jerks them out to terra firma. Sometimes the 

 suckers will take the baited hook, though very seldom. No less 

 than twelve varieties of suckers are enumerated as belonging to 

 northern waters, averaging a foot in length ; the most prominent 

 of which the Mullet Sucker, Moxost. ■ macrolepidota, grows to a 

 length of eighteen inches. It is very common in Lake Erie, where 

 it is severally called the Mullet, Golden Mullet, and Red Horse. 

 There is also a common species in Lake Erie, very black in color, 

 which is called the Black Sucker and the Shoemaker. The 



