FISHES OF THE WEST. 325 



They are very voracious and savage. Their teeth are so sharp 

 and their jaws so strong that they have been known to bite a two 

 pound fish clean in two the very first snap. They are as tenacious 

 of life as the eel. The young when about six inches long make 

 a famous bait for pickerel and pike. To use it run the hook into 

 the mouth^right up through the centre of the head, through the 

 brain, cast a hundred times, catch several fish, and at the end of 

 three to six hours he will still kick like a mule. Put one hundred 

 into a rain barrel and you can keep them all summer without 

 change of water. For the aquarium the young have no equal, and 

 on account of the spot in the tail are quite attractive ; but nothing 

 else but snails can live in the tank. He will kill a lizard or any 

 other living thing the instant it touches the water. 



Dr. Estes says : " I have sent these young dogfish hundreds of 

 miles for the aquarium. It is only necessary to keep them in water, 

 a change scarcely being required. The adults are the great 

 "jumpers '' of the lake. On certain days they are to be seen in 

 all directions jumping clean out of the water, and turning com- 

 plete somersaults before again striking. They spawn in May and 

 June among the grass and weeds of the sloughs, if they can reach 

 them in time. As soon as the spring rise comes, usually in May 

 and June, and connects the inland sloughs with the lake (Pepin) 

 they run up and over into these sloughs, deposit their eggs, and 

 remain near the beds and young just as long as they can and not 

 be shut in by the receding of the water. The eggs hatch in eight 

 and ten days, the parent remaining with the brood two or three 

 weeks if possible, but will leave them much sooner if necessary to 

 save themselves. The young will not make any effbrt to escape to 

 the lake until the next season, when if an opening occurs they come 

 pouring out in countless numbers. At this time we take them 

 by stretching the minnow seine across the opening and raising it 

 when full. They are now from three to six inches long, fat and 

 chubby, I come now to mention a peculiar habit of this fish, no 

 account of which I have ever seen. It is this : While the parent still 

 remains with the young, if the family become suddenly alarmed, 

 the capacious mouth of the old fish will open, and in rushes the 

 entire host of little ones ; the ugly maw is at once closed, and off 

 she rushes to a place of security, when again the little gaptiv^s 



