No. 492] 



POLYODON SPAT HULA 



765 



to spring up in the lower IMississippi River region, until it has 

 become the most valuable fish of these waters. This fishing 

 industry is conducted in various degrees of perfection, and some 

 of the more intelligent fishermen have very extensive apparatus 

 for procuring Polyodon. On Lake Washington, Mr. McGehee, 

 through wliose kindness I was enabled to make most of the obser- 



vations above recorded, directs a most efficient fishery. He runs 

 two seines, one nearly two miles long and thirty feet deep, the other 

 about one mile long and fit'tccii feet (l<'t'p, for use in shallower 

 water. These huge seines are woumi upon a large reel which is 

 constructed on a heavy l.arg(>. In laving out the seine for the 

 catch, the barge is towed by a gas launch around a circular area 



