274 Modern Fishculture in Fresh and Salt Water. 



snake's mate" in Pennsylvania. It is very poisonous, 

 but is not as common as it was. While fishing for black 

 bass, in the Delaware River, one crawled out of the 

 water with a perch in its mouth so near me that I killed 

 it with a stone. 



From Illinois south dwells the water moccasin {A. 

 piscivorus), said by Jordan to be the most dangerous of 

 our snakes. I have seen them hanging on bushes over 

 the water ready for fish or frog, and have killed several 

 that had fish in them. When fishing in Southern waters 

 I keep a good lookout for these animals, which give no 

 warning rattle, but carry small doses of sudden death 

 ready to be injected into the leg of a peaceful angler. 



Tortoises and Turtles. — In America we popularly 

 call them all "turtles," and the distinction of "tortoise" 

 for the land and fresh-water kind is almost unknown, 

 while the principal exception is that delicate box of gela- 

 tinous meat, the diamond-back terrapin of the salt-water 

 marshes. I never knew the box tortoise to eat fish, and 

 I have had them in captivity for years; they seemed 

 fond of fruits, melons and tomatoes. 



All the pond and river turtles are great fish eaters. 

 They will float up quietly under a fish and make a grab 

 for it. Some years ago I was using a live minnow for 

 black bass, on Long Island, when I saw a great snap- 

 ping turtle take the minnow and go below. A few pulls 

 showed that a trout rod would never stir a thirty-pound 

 turtle from the mud and weeds, and I kept weaving 

 the rod from side to side in order to cut the snell on 

 the reptile's jaw, in order not to lose the entire leader. 

 The game worked, and a hook was the only loss. I 

 have taken these brutes on night lines set for eels, but 

 there were hooks selected for that work, and no gut 

 snells. 



