Haw-Ho-Noo; Or, Records of a TouristLanman, Charles
History
Haw-Ho-Noo; Or, Records of a Tourist
Lanman, Charles
Fishing -- North America; United States -- Description and travel
not deny, but we feel confident that the above correction cannot be
refuted.
_The Maskalunge and Pickerel._—Both of these fish are peculiar to the
United States, and especially to the Great Lakes, and the waters of the
St. Lawrence and Mississippi. The former belongs unquestionably to the
pike family, although commonly weighing from twenty to forty pounds,
while many people affirm that it is only an overgrown pike. They are
valued as an article of food, and by those who are fond of killing the
most savage of game at the expense of much labor, they are highly
appreciated. The best and about the only valuable account of this fish
that we have ever seen, was written by George W. Clinton, Esq., and
published in the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. As to the fish which we
call the pickerel, we have to say that it occupies a position somewhere
between the trout and perch; that it is a favorite with the anglers of
Lake Champlain, Lake Erie, and Lake Michigan, and with those also who
practice the gentle art along the borders of the Ohio and the Tennessee.
It is an active fish, of a roundish form, with large mouth and sharp
teeth, and covered with small scales, the predominating colors being a
dark green and yellowish white. The name which it bears is the one so
generally applied, but erroneously, to the legitimate pike. It is also
the same fish known in the Southwest as the salmon, but as unlike the
peerless creature of the far North as a gray wolf is unlike a deer. As
is the case with the maskalunge, the pickerel is among the first of the
finny tribes that run up our Western rivers early in the spring; and in
the waters of Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence they are found herding
with the yellow perch, and we believe that in some districts they are
considered as belonging to the perch family.
_The Catfish._—This fish is distinguished for its many deformities, and
is a great favorite with all persons who have a fancy for muddy waters.
In the Mississippi they are frequently taken weighing upwards of one
hundred pounds; and while they are taken in all the tributaries of that
river, it has been ascertained that they decrease in size as you ascend
towards the north. They are also found in the tributaries of Lake Erie.
They are taken with any kind of bait; and as they are very strong the
best of tackle is invariably necessary. This fish is also found in many
of the lakes of New England, where they seldom weigh more than two
pounds, being there known as the horn or bull pout, owing to a peculiar
pictorial thorn with which they are adorned. Their flesh, though not
particularly sweet, is said to be easily digested, and they are often
sought for by people with weak stomachs. But it has always seemed to us
that it required a very _powerful_ stomach to eat a piece from one of
the mammoths of the Western waters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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