When the net was rapidened around these hoops it formed a tunnel aboutfour feet long. Then we had a bag net eight or ten feet long. The mouthof this was tied around the first or large hoop of the tunnel, so whenthe fish came down and ran into that they could not find their way out.Father said when the fish were running back to Detroit River, it wasright to catch them, but when they were going up everybody along thecreek ought to have a chance. I never knew him to put his net in, solong as the fish were running up. When they got to going back, as theymost all run in the night, in the evening he would go and set his net,and next evening he would have a beautiful lot of fish. In this way, somesprings, we caught more than we could use fresh, so salted some down forsummer use. They helped us very much, taking the place of other meat. Foryears back there have hardly any fish made their appearance up theEcorse. Now it would be quite a curiosity to see one in the creek. Isuppose the reason they do not come up is that some persons put in gillnets at the mouth of the Ecorse, on Detroit River, and catch them, orstop them at least. It is known that fish will not run out of a bigwater, and run up a little stream, at any time except in the night.

These denizens of the deep have their own peculiar ways, and although mancan contrive to catch them, yet he cannot fathom the mysteries thatbelong alone to them. Where they travel he cannot tell for they leave notrack behind.

It is seen that I used a hunter's phrase in my description of holding thegun while shooting fish. The hunter will readily comprehend it as given.If he has seen a deer and it has escaped him, and you ask him why hedidn't shoot it; he almost invariably says, "I couldn't get my gun on itbefore it jumped out of my sight." To such as do not comprehend thatphrase I will say, the expression is allowable, as the bullet or chargeof shot flies so swiftly (even in advance of the sharp report of thegun). The distance of twenty rods or more is virtually annihilated: Hencethe expression, "I held the gun on it," (though it was rods away.) If hesighted his gun straight toward the object he wished to hit whether itwas in the air, under water, or on the ground, he would claim that heheld his gun on it.