WESTERN CARP. 365 
vicinity as the “pond fish.” In color it much resembles 
the beautiful black bass, in shape slender but graceful; the 
placement of the fins is the same as in the pike family, but 
the head is small, and not unlike that of a trout. It is a 
greedy feeder, and, from its being uneatable (the flesh being 
hard and rank), is considered a great bore by the fishermen. 
Their average weight is from two to four pounds. Still an- 
other variety with which I had been previously unacquaint- 
ed was taken, viz., “the Great Western carp,” there called 
“the buffalo-fish.” It is frequently captured of enormous 
size—several J have seen over twenty pounds. They are 
much and deservedly esteemed, and are taken in immense 
numbers in the spring of the year by spearing; for as soon 
as a flood takes place, when the water is rising, they rush 
out over all the inundated lands, wherever there is sufficient 
depth for them to swim. For more than an hour one day 
I watched a lad, spear in hand, who had taken his post over 
an opening which passed under the Ohio and Mississippi 
Railroad, made. similar to a-sluice for the purpose of 
preventing the water in time of floods becoming dammed. 
During my stay this Pe must have killed a couple 
of hundred-weight. 
You must not imagine that these were. all that were in 
the net. Sun-fish, pike, pickerel, black bass, catfish, mullet, 
and turtle to a wagon-load rewarded the fishermen’s efforts. 
In the end of the bag, I was about to place my hand upon 
what I considered a rare prize, when I was stopped by the 
rough intervention of one of the people, and the exclama- 
tion of “ You don’t want to die before your time? If he 
bite you, all the whisky in the county won’t save you.” 
(Whisky is considered an infallible cure for snake-bites.) 
This nondescript to be avoided was like Siebold’s salaman- 
der, with four of the smallest and most awkward-looking 
legs; the brute was about fourteen inches long, and was 
