position in the front of the canoe, while the other men
noiselessly paddle the boat against the current to the spot where
sturgeon are seen to be quietly resting or rooting in the gravelly
bottom of the shallow places in the current.

Alec was the first to make the attempt at this new and rather uncertain
sport. In a good canoe manned by a couple of skilled Indians, he took
his position in the bow of the canoe, and with a good strong fishing
spear in his hands he steadied himself carefully in the cranky boat,
while the men silently paddled him to a spot where the occasional
appearance of part of a sturgeon above the water betrayed its presence.
The sun shining gloriously made the day delightful, but its very
brightness was the cause of Alec's discomfiture.

Nothing more quickly disturbs sturgeon than a sudden shadow thrown on
the water. Alec, not knowing this, was being quietly paddled against
the current, thus facing toward the west. As it was now about noon, the
bright sun was on his left. In this position he ought only to have
attempted to spear the fish on the left side of his canoe, where he
would have thrown no shadow. Ignorant of this, as soon as he observed a
large sturgeon not far ahead of him he quietly indicated by signs to the
canoemen which way he wished them to paddle, so as to bring him close
enough to spear the fish. The men from their positions not being able
to see the sturgeon paddled as directed, and soon Alec was brought close
enough to make the attempt. The sturgeon seemed to be an enormous one,
and so Alec, knowing that only a most desperate lunge would enable him
to drive the spear through the thick hide of the fish, which was just
now a little before him on the right, made the attempt with all the
strength that he could possibly muster.

But, alas, how different from what was expected! As Alec threw himself
forward to plunge the sharp spear into the body of the fish, he found
that it met with no firmer substance than the water, and so, instead of
the spear being buried in the body of the fish, the momentum of his
great effort threw him out of the boat, and down he went head first into
the river. Fortunately the water was not deep, and as the other canoes
were not far behind he was soon pulled into one of them, a bit
frightened, but none the worse for his involuntary plunge.

Nothing daunted, Sam was the next to volunteer to try his skill, and on
being informed that Alec's trouble wa