The fishing on the Nueces (Nut) River, about nine miles from the mines, is very good, and the water is of crystal clearness; there I have caught bass up to 12 lbs., and alligator char up to 4 feet in length, and have seen others over 6 feet long. Although these latte are no good for the table, they are well worth trying for, as they are one of the gamest freshwater fish I have ever hooked; they have given me splendid sport, much to the disgust of my camp partner, who could not see the sense of catching fish that were not good for the pot, and then throwing them back again. They are a species of pike, with a much longer mouth, like an alligator, hence the name. Catfish also have been caught, weighing as much as 45 lbs., and a blue cat of that size will give a man all he can handle on a light rod. Our new foreman, Betner, was a well-built man of about forty-five years of age, of the stamp known as “raw-hider” in the States, and his boast was that he could get more work out of a gang of men than any man he had met. He was of the stamp of the famous Jim Conners. Conners was put as boss of a gang of rough longshoremen in Buffalo; before he started work he decided to call his men altogether and give them a talk. When he had them all there he roared out, "Now yez are to work for me, and I want every man to understand what’s what. What I sez goes, and whin I spake I want yez to jomp, for I kin lick any man in the gang!" There was silence for a minute, then one burly fellow stepped out and said, "You can’t lick me, Jim Conners." "I can’t, can’t I?" bellowed Conners. "No, you can’t," was the reply. “Oh, thin go to the office and get your money,” said Conners, "fer I’ll have no man in me gang that I can’t lick." So it was with Betner; he would not have any man in his gang who would not lick his boots.