Some officers of the United States army and land surveyors, sent on the
Red River by the government at Washington for a month, took up their
residence at Captain Finn's. One day, when the conversation had fallen
upon the cawana, it was resolved that a trial should be made to
ascertain the strength of the animal. A heavy iron hand-pike was
transformed by a blacksmith into a large hook, which was fixed to an
iron chain belonging to the anchor of a small-boat, and as that
extraordinary fishing-tackle was not of a sufficient length, they added
to it a hawser, forty fathoms in length and of the size of a woman's
wrist. The hook was baited with a lamb a few days old, and thrown into a
deep hole ten yards from the shore, where Captain Finn knew that one of
the monsters was located; the extremity of the hawser was made fast to
an old cotton-tree.
Late in the evening of the second day, and as the rain poured down in
torrents, a negro slave ran to the house to announce that the bait had
been taken, and every one rushed to the river side. They saw that, in
fact, the hawser was in a state of tension, but the weather being too
bad to do anything that evening, they put it off till the next morning.
A stout horse was procured, who soon dragged the hawser from the water
till the chain became visible, but all further attempts of the animal
were in vain; after the most strenuous exertion, the horse could not
conquer the resistance or gain a single inch.
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