872 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
this fish, but in that State they do not run so large in my 
experience as in the more Kastern waters. 
In the Lake of the Woods (a few years ago, if I had 
spoken of this distant sheet of water, I would have been 
laughed at, but, thanks to Colonel [now General] Wolseley’s 
opening a road to the Red River and the settlement of 
Manitoba, it is now within easy access), I was informed by 
a half-breed residing at Fort Garry that its waters teemed 
with gigantic pike that had but to be tried for to obtain. 
From my knowledge of the marshy nature of the country 
that surrounds this silent sheet of water, I have little doubt 
that my informant spoke the truth. 
When no other fishing is to be obtained more worthy of 
the sportsman’s skill, let him then by all means devote his 
leisure to the capture of the subject of this chapter; but I 
would: sooner take one salmon, ay, one trout, than a dozen 
of these fresh-water sharks. 
But let me shift the scene from the valley of the muddy 
Ohio River to the pellucid Severn, a feeder of Lake Huron. 
I was living. on the confines of civilization literally, for 
there was but one-residence farther north than the house 
of which I was an inmate, and it was inhabited by a canny 
Scot, who never knew what it was to take a day’s relaxa- 
tion, his entire energy, early and late, being devoted to the 
improvement of his hontestead. Shortly after my arrival I 
paid him. a visit, but I found that information on shooting 
matters would have to be obtained through my own exer- 
tions; for, more than a complaint against Bruin occasion- 
ally depriving him of a pig, he knew literally nothing of 
the sporting capabilities of his neighborhood. It is always 
pleasant on a new field of operations to obtain a slight 
inkling of what you may expect. It is far from agreeable 
to have to draw a charge of snipe-shot, and thus lose time, 
to substitute B B, or perhaps ball, small game being expect- 
