Hauling a net in Reelfoot Lake――A ton of shovel-nosed cats and alligator gars――Davy rubs his eyes at the sight, and resolves to keep out of the water――He kills fifteen bears in two weeks――He goes home, but soon feels obliged to have another hunt――With his son, he kills three bears the first day――The bear hunt in the cane――Takes a hungry man and family into partnership in the hunt――How the “varments” spend the long winters――He trees a bear near Reelfoot Lake――“Mixing it up” with the dogs――Salting the meat. Early the next day, Davy and his host were at the shore of the lake, waiting for three boats that could be seen coming from a distance, two of them under sail. When they arrived at the Jepson landing, close to the house where Davy was staying, Davy’s friend had his own boat ready, and in a few minutes all four were headed for a bay-like place between some of the islands. In one of the boats was a long cotton net, brought from St. Louis. Davy had never seen a net hauled, and was eager to watch the proceedings. When near the islands, the net was strung overboard, extending across the bay for several hundred feet. Two boats were fastened to it at each end and it was drawn in toward the land, where there were no stumps or trees to interfere. It was slow work, for the net touched bottom, and often caught on sunken logs. There was no appearance of fish within it as it came slowly in, until both ends of the net were fast to shore and the bight was being hauled. When it was about thirty feet out, a great fish broke water with a splash, and all over the surface within the ropes were ripples that told of others. Close to the shore were several stakes standing in the water, and attached to them was the pound-net towards which the catch was being hauled. The two boats slowly narrowed the circle until most of the fish had gone into this. When all was ready, and the large net was clear, the mouth of the pound-net was closed, and it was freed from the stakes, when the ten men of the fishing expedition pulled it to a small dock, built of logs, in a few feet of water. Standing on this, they lifted the pound-net from the water and dumped the contents into the largest boat. Davy shouted with astonishment at the sight. As many as forty shovel-nosed catfish and a dozen alligator garfish writhed and squirmed before his eyes. They might have weighed a thousand pounds in all, but the traditionist of the Samburg settlement has not been admitted to the Ananias Club, and gives only a vague history of the catch in which his grandfather was interested, under the arrangement of “share and share alike.” He knows that it was a big haul, but one that is, of course, often outdone to-day. In the account of a trip to the lake in 1908, to which reference has been already made, Mr. Paddock gives a description of the fish named, and it is so much more interesting than anything scientific, that it is repeated here.