88 AMERICAN FISHES. 



hundreds have often been taken at a single haul with the long sweeping 

 nets in use near Rayner Town, Babylon and Fire Island. They even tell 

 of a thousand brought to land at a'draught. He also bites at the hook, 

 and several are not unfrequently thus caught in succession. The outfitting 

 of a Sheepshead party is always an occasion of considerable excitement 

 and high expectation, as I have often experienced. Whenever a Sheeps- 

 head is brought on board the boat more joy is manifested than by the 

 possession of any other kind of fish. The sportsmen view the exercises so 

 much above common fishing that the capture of the Sheepshead is the 

 most desirable combination of luck and skill ; and the feats of hooking 

 and landing him safely in the boat furnish abundant materials for the most 

 pleasing and hyperbolical stories. The Sheepshead is a very stout fish, 

 and the hooks and lines are strong in proportion ; yet he frequently breaks 

 them and makes his escape. Sheepshead have been caught with such fish- 

 ing-tackle fastened to their jaws. When the line or hook gives way, the 

 accident makes a serious impression on the company. As the possession 

 of the Sheepshead is a grand prize, so his escape is felt as a distressing loss. 

 I know an ancient fisherman who used to record in a book the time, 

 place, and circumstances of every Sheepshead he had caught. This fish is 

 sometimes speared by torchlight in the wide and shallow bays of Queens 

 County and Suffolk." 



Dr. Mitchill concludes his naive remarks by the mournful words: "It 

 is to be regretted that the Sheepshead too often corrupt for want of ice." 



Schoepf, writing of the same region forty years before, states that dur- 

 ing the period of the Revolutionary war the Sheepshead was very abun- 

 dant in the summer months and was a very highly prized species. In 

 1773 the New York Chamber of Commerce offered a prize of twenty 

 pounds sterling to the crew of the vessel which should bring to the city 

 markets, " the greatest quantity of live Sheepshead, from the ist of May, 

 1773, to the ist of May, 1774." Some unknown writer contributed to 

 Brown's " American Angler," in 1846, the following memorandum : 



" These noble fish have become quite scarce in our harbor. The writer 

 has taken them repeatedly near Governor's Island, opposite the Battery, 

 but this was in days long since gone by. Still, they are still taken, occa- 

 sionally, at Caving Point and at the Signal poles, at the Narrows, also at 

 Pelham Bridge and Little Hell Gate." 



Scott gives the following advice to Sheepshead anglers : 



" If a resident of New York, you will find Canarsie on the Old Mill, 

 near East New York, the most convenient place from which to take a sail- 

 boat ; a boat is generally at hand at either jilace. Sail down tlie channel 

 above the inlet toward Near Rockawav. al-out a mile below Remson's Ho- 



