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 than 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 Mieropterus 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 we were strug- 
gling with a big fish simultaneously. 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 pounds. 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 were 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 nearly 
ahead of us we saw a large buck dash from the thicket into 
the shallow water, which was covered with lily-pads, and rush 
through 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 
