e than half a century, and never yet heard
of a 'cable-rope,' from any one who could hand, reef, and steer."

"Well, sir, every man to his trade," said the commodore, who just
then pulled in a fine pickerel, which was the third he had taken,
while his companion rejoiced in no more than a few fruitless bites.
"You are more expert in ropes than in lines, it would seem. I shall
not deny your experience and knowledge; but in the way of fishing,
you will at least allow that the sea is no great school. I dare say,
now, if you were to hook the 'sogdollager,' we should have you
jumping into the lake to get rid of him. Quite probably, sir, you
never before heard of that celebrated fish?"

Notwithstanding the many excellent qualities of Captain Truck, he had
a weakness that is rather peculiar to a class of men, who, having
seen so much of this earth, are unwilling to admit they have not seen
it all. The little brush in which he was now engaged with the
commodore, he conceived due to his own dignity, and his motive was
duly to impress his companion with his superiority, which being
fairly admitted, he would have been ready enough to acknowledge that
the other understood pike-fishing much better than himself. But it
was quite too early in the discussion to make any such avowal, and
the supercilious remark of the commodore's putting him on his mettle,
he was ready to affirm that he had eaten 'sogdollagers' for
breakfast, a month at a time, had it been necessary.

"Pooh! pooh! man," returned the captain, with an air of cool
indifference, "you do not surely fancy that you have any thing in a
lake like this, that is not to be found in the ocean! If you were to
see a whale's flukes thrashing your puddle, every cruiser among you
would run for a port; and as for 'sogdollagers,' we think little of
them in salt-water; the flying-fish, or even the dry dolphin, being
much the best eating."

"Sir," said the commodore, with some heat, and a great deal of
emphasis, "there is but _one_ 'sogdollager' in the world, and he is
in this lake. No man has ever seen him, but my predecessor, the
'Admiral,' and myself."

"Bah!" ejaculated the captain, "they are as plenty as soft clams, in
the Mediterranean, and the Egyptians use them as a pan-fish. In the
East, they catch them to bait with, for hallibut, and other middling
sized creatures, that are particular about their diet. It is a good
fish, I own, as is seen in this very circumstance."

"Sir,"