On the Upper River there is a fish, now quite rare, called the Diamond Scale Catfish -- the only scaled catfish in North America. It's rarity is the result of human over-predation, as it was long hunted for its skin. The Indians -- Sac, Fox and the rest -- would make war vests from the hide, as the scales were quite literally harder than diamond, but not brittle. These vests could, literally, turn the bullet from a high-powered rifle (with my own eyes I saw an armor-piercing 45-70 round bounce off one). Local white men who marched off to war were given such a vest by their parents or wife -- indeed, if you weren't given one it was obvious that they wanted you dead.

The flesh was exquisite, for what was said about the turtle, that the meat was flavored as veal, pork, beef, fish, or chicken depending upon where it came from, was absolutely true of the Diamond Scale Catfish. Just a small peice of this fish could provide a balanced diet for a family of six for a week.

And they grew big, too. Art's catfish might well have been one. Bloody shame that there are so very few left, and those are always very, very small.