The next day we entered the lake, [342] which is of great extent, say
eighty or a hundred leagues long, where I saw four fine islands, ten,
twelve, and fifteen leagues long, which were formerly inhabited by the
savages, like the River of the Iroquois; but they have been abandoned since
the wars of the savages with one another prevail. There are also many
rivers falling into the lake, bordered by many fine trees of the same kinds
as those we have in France, with many vines finer than any I have seen in
any other place; also many chestnut-trees on the border of this lake, which
I had not seen before. There is also a great abundance of fish, of many
varieties: among others, one called by the savages of the country
_Chaousarou_ [343] which varies in length, the largest being, as the people
told me, eight or ten feet long. I saw some five feet long, which were as
large as my thigh; the head being as big as my two fists, with a snout two
feet and a half long, and a double row of very sharp and dangerous teeth.
Its body is, in shape, much like that of a pike; but it is armed with
scales so strong that a poniard could not pierce them. Its color is
silver-gray. The extremity of its snout is like that of a swine. This fish
makes war upon all others in the lakes and rivers. It also possesses
remarkable dexterity, as these people informed me, which is exhibited in
the following manner. When it wants to capture birds, it swims in among the
rushes, or reeds, which are found on the banks of the lake in several
places, where it puts its snout out of water and keeps perfectly still: so
that, when the birds come and light on its snout, supposing it to be only
the stump of a tree, it adroitly closes it, which it had kept ajar, and
pulls the birds by the feet down under water. The savages gave me the head
of one of them, of which they make great account, saying that, when they
have the headache, they bleed themselves with the teeth of this fish on the
spot where they suffer pain, when it suddenly passes away.