APPENDIX III. 301 



r 



On the afternoon of the 24th ultimo I had fished faith- 

 fully for pickerel till sundown, without even getting an en- 

 couraging nibble ; tired at last of that fun, I took out a 

 small hook and line, and soon had twenty-five perch ; they 

 froze almost instantly ; I strung them on a crotched twig, 

 carried them so for two miles, and, when thawed out, found 

 fourteen of them alive, the rest having been hurt either by 

 the hook or the twig. 



The pond behind the village, formed by the damming 

 of the river, is full of young pickerel ; they are all from 

 three fish put in there last winter, one male and two fe- 

 males. All of them were brought from Lake Sandford 

 frozen, and were put into the pond after they had been 

 thawed out in a trough. The male I caught ; it lay on 

 the ice, frozen, for three hours, and then, not finding a 

 mate for him, I ran a stick through his gills, and dragged 

 him home on the snow, two miles,' threw him into the 

 trough, and thought no more of him till next morning, 

 when I found him alive, and seemingly enjoying himself as 

 well as his narrow limits would permit. I took pity on the 

 poor fellow, carried him down to the pond, and he went 

 off like a dart. 



These are but a few instances of what occurs almost 

 every day the winter through. The fact of their resuscita- 

 tion after being frozen, as I have described, is known to 

 every one here who is in the habit of fishing in winter, and 

 cannot escape being noticed, as the weather is cold enough 

 almost all the time to freeze them, and they have to be 

 thawed out before they can be cleaned. 



I have heard fishermen say that they have taken trout 

 when frozen, and whittled the fins and tail off, and, on 

 being thawed, found them alive ; but I have never tried 

 this or any other experiment with them, and would not 

 vouch for the truth of it. 



