Next day, we entered the lake, which is of considerable extent, some fifty or sixty leagues, where I saw four beautiful islands, ten, twelve, and fifteen leagues in length, formerly inhabited, as well as the Iroquois River, by Indians, but abandoned since they have been at war the one with the other. Several rivers, also, discharge into the lake, surrounded by a number of fine trees similar to those we have in France, with a quantity of vines handsomer than any I ever saw; a great many chestnuts; and I had not yet seen, except the margin of the lake, where there is a larger abundance of fish of divers species. Among the rest there is one called by the Indians of the country _chaousarou_,[335] of divers lengths. The largest, I was informed by the people, are of eight to ten feet. I saw one of five, as thick as a thigh, with a head as big as two fists, with jaws two feet and a half long, and a double set of very sharp and dangerous teeth. The form of the body resembles that of the pike; and it is armed with scales that the thrust of a poniard cannot pierce; and it is of a silver gray-color. The point of the snout is like that of a hog. This fish makes war on all others in the lakes and rivers, and possesses, as these people assure, a wonderful instinct; which is, that, when it wants to catch any birds, it goes among the rushes or reeds bordering the lake in many places, keeping the beak out of the water without budging; so that when birds perch on the beak, imagining it a limb of a tree, it is so subtle, that, closing the jaws which it keeps half open, it draws the birds under water by the feet. The Indians gave me a head of it, which they prize highly, saying, when they have a headache, they let blood with the teeth of this fish at the seat of the pain, which immediately goes away.