344 



RECREATION. 



flopping, but as the water was now deep 

 enough for it to swim, it made a dash to 

 the front. It struck Charlie amidships and 

 walked nearly up to his collar. The fish 

 fell back, and so did Charlie, his feet in 

 the air, kicking. If I had to be drowned 

 the next minute I should have laughed at 

 the picture he made. There was no time 

 to laugh, however, for, although I had no 

 fear but that we would come out all right, 

 something had to be done. As soon as I 

 had seen the first spout of water I had in- 

 stinctively begun unlacing my shoes. They 

 were off by the time Charlie fell over, so 

 that when he lifted his head I was over- 

 board, holding to the boat with one hand, 

 and getting off my coat with the other. 

 Charlie rolled out, shoes and all, and we 

 held a council. We were in no danger, as 

 the boat, although only 3 inches above 

 water, would easily support double our 

 weight. Our only concern was how to 

 get out of the scrape. 



Charlie wanted the fish, and had a plan 

 to save him. He reached over into the 

 bow of the boat and got his little grip- 

 sack of tackle, from which he took a hook 

 about 3 inches across, made of ^-inch 

 steel, to which was attached a ^-inch cot- 

 ton rope 6 feet long. This hook he had 

 trimmed up to use whenever we wanted to 

 tie up to a tree or log for still fishing. 

 He made the end of the rope fast to the 

 boat and then moved along until he was 

 within reach of the fish, which, having 



plenty of water, was resting quietly. 

 Watching his chance, Charlie got his hook 

 under the jaw of the fish and gave a jerk, 

 which set it firmly so we were satisfied it 

 would hold. 



The next thing was to get ashore, which 

 we did by getting at one end of the boat 

 and pushing it ahead of us as we swam. 

 Where we landed there had been a camp, 

 and a landing had been brushed out, so we 

 could pull the boat ashore. It was so full 

 of water we could not pull it out, but we 

 pulled it up as far as we could, and let the 

 water run out. Then as it lightened we 

 pulled again, until, finally, the water was 

 all out. Meantime we had got a rock and 

 pounded the head of the fish until he was 

 dead. Pulling the boat entirely on shore, 

 we reversed ends and put it back in the 

 water. Both of us then got in the end 

 away from the break, thus raising the 

 break above water so we could paddle the 

 3 miles back to camp. By the heat of the 

 sun and exercise of paddling we were pret- 

 ty well dried out by the time we reached 

 camp. 



Our catch was a "Musky" 44 inches 

 long. We could not get his exact weight, 

 as the only scales available were 2 of those 

 24-pound spring balances, and the fish 

 pulled both of them down to the limit. 

 One of them, however, was old, and pulled 

 down 2 pounds before it would weigh any- 

 thing. The head measured 8 inches across, 

 and now adorns the wall of my den. 



*#&&$ 



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, ■-. 1 





LADY AMHERST PHEASANT. CHRYSOLOPHUS AMHERSTIAE. 

 Male. Native of the Mountains of Eastern Thibet and Wester** and Southern China. 



