CATFISH AND EELS. 181 



There are two varieties of these monsters in the Ohio and 

 Mississippi : the " Mud Oat," with a broad flat head, and the 

 " Channel Cat." The latter is far more active and stronger 

 than the former. 



In my boyhood, I frequently went Catfishing with a rustic 

 angler, whom I shall never forget. After breakfast, one of 

 the servants would appear with a gourdfull of worms, and we 

 would proceed to his favorite pool, and "set our poles," 

 sticking the buts, which were sharpened, into the muddy 

 bank, and resting them on forked sticks. Ponto, an old bob- 

 tail pointer, would be one of the party, and appeared to enjoy 

 the sport as much as his master ; at the slightest tremor of 

 the cork, he would become restless ; when it disappeared he 

 would come to a stand ; and when the fish was landed, he 

 would seize it or keep it away from the water with as much 

 assiduity as he would look for a wounded partridge. "Aunt 

 Bett," the cook, one day docked Pont's tail with a cleaver, for 

 some depredation, as he was retreating from the kitchen ; and 

 it is said, the neighbors could always tell when " Uncle Tom" 

 had been at his favorite fishing-hole, by the impression that 

 Pont's tail left in the mud, as he sat on his hurdies. 



As an expedient, on one occasion, when we forgot the 

 gourd of worms, and were waiting while the boy had gone 

 back for it, we shot a squirrel, and a small bait of its entrails 

 appeared perfectly acceptable to our friends of the muddy 

 water. 



When the negroes went "a catting" at night, they not 

 unfrequently supplied themselves with chickens' entrails, as 

 well as worms, averring that the former took the largest Cat- 

 fish. 



In regard to the question whether any fish manifest a care 

 for their young after the latter are hatched from the spawn, 

 I am informed by a brother angler — the same who writes in 



