THE POMPANOES. 205 



In August, 1874, a party of the Fish Commission hauled a hundred 

 fathom seine on the beach at Watch Hill, R. I., and much to our surprise 

 a number of young Carolina Pompanoes were landed. They were less 

 than two inches long, and were exceedingly graceful in their movements. 

 They were kept alive for some weeks in aquaria. At a short distance 

 they looked like silver dollars swimming about on their edges. 



Twelve months later we were still more successful, obtaining the young 

 of both species in Holmes' Hole. The small Round Pompanoes, an inch 

 or two in length, were very beautiful, their burnished sides shaded with 

 tawny golden tints. 



In 1876, I became familiar with three species in the Bermudas, the most 

 common of which was the Round Pompano. In the winter of 1875 a 

 school of six or seven hundred were seined on the south shore of the islands. 

 A large one was confined in the aquarium at " Wistow Lodge," the resi- 

 dence of Hon. C. M. Allen. This aquarium is unique, being a circular 

 basin, embowered in tropical vegetation, and aerated by a powerful 

 fountain of sea water, forced up by a tide-Avheel. In this limpid pool 

 were many gorgeously-colored species, the angel-fish, the parrot-fish, the 

 rainbow-fish, the Spanish-lady, the surgeon, the porcupine, and the ser- 

 geant-major. Among them, as they softly floated, moving like soaring 

 birds, flashed in and out the Pompano, with black-tipped, streaming fins, 

 only plainly visible when momentarily at rest in some secluded corner of 

 the basin. It was the only fish I have ever seen which appeared to possess 

 the power of becoming phosphorescent at will. At night we could trace 

 its nervous movements by occasional gleams of light, as the fish, turning 

 one side toward us, touched with the other the floor of the basin. 



