156 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



resembles what a huge Perch might be, if inflated; for its 

 body is not only very deep, but thick and full, and is puffed 

 up to the very tail; a fish of thirty inches, weighing almost as 

 many pounds. It is seldom taken with a hook and line, and 

 is of little interest to the angler. I notice it here, only 

 because it is never seen by the angler of the Atlantic States, 

 though it is common to all the waters that connect with the 

 Ohio and Mississippi. Its flesh is gross and unpalatable. 



At St. Louis I have seen a dray -load of these unwieldy, mis- 

 shapen fish, brought on board of a steamboat bound for New 

 Orleans. Although kept in ice, they would get rather stale 

 by the time the boat reached the cotton and sugar regions. 

 Billy Clark, an assistant clerk on one of these boats, who was 

 somewhat of a wag, would write them down at the head of 

 the bill of fare " Mississippi Salmon a la tartare," but quietly 

 remarked, he would as soon eat a piece of the Ohio Fat Boy. 

 Some of the natives though, who came aboard, apparently 

 from inland, on our passage down, seemed to relish them 

 hugely. I remember one of these, a short, pot-bellied, bald- 

 headed little man, with low-quartered shoes, short trousers, 

 and a brown linen jacket, an outline of whose figure closely 

 resembled the fish in question. There used to be some fast 

 eating on western steamboats in those days. I have seen all 

 the courses from "soup," down to "almonds and raisins," 

 done in twenty minutes: but when this piscivorous little 

 gentleman sat down to boiled Buffalo, it was astonishing to a 

 man accustomed to slow eating. The mention of this fish 

 brings up other ludicrous reminiscences ; but 



" Farewell ! a word that must be, and hath been — 

 A sound which makes us linger — yet, farewell !" 



The Sunny South — farewell, great Bubalus, and all the 

 minor Catostomi. 



