The largest I was informed by the people, are of eight to ten feet. I saw one of 5, 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 a thrust of a poniard cannot pierce ; and is of a silver grey

1 Lake ChamplaJn,

b CHAMPLAIN'S EXPEDITIONS

coloiu'. 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 those people assui-e me, a wonderful instinct ; wliich 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 the birds perch on the beak, imagiiung it a limb of a tree, it is so subtle that closing the jaws wliich it keeps half open, it draws the birds under water by the feet. The Indians gave me a head of it, which they prize liighly, 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.

ContLQuing our route along the west side of the Lake, contemplating the country, I saw on the east side very high mountains capped with Snow. I asked the Indians if those parts were inhabited 1 They answered me, Yes, and that they were Iroquois, and that there were in those parts beautiful vallies, and fields fertile in corn as good as I had ever eaten in tlie country, witli an infinitude of other fruits, and that the Lake extended close to the mountains, which were, according to my judgment, 15 leagues from us.