AMERICAN FISHES. 



were salted during the season of I S7 1 by the fishermen, in his vicinity. 



The fish bring about $3 per hundred at wholesale, and $5 at retail, this 

 being equal to the average for the last ten years. 



Silas Stearns writes : 



" The Spotted Trout is abundant from Key West to Mexico. In the 

 Pensacola region it is present all the year, although most abundant in 

 summer. It prefers to remain in shoal waters on grassy bottom, where it 

 finds small fish and shrimps in abundance for food. It breeds in inside 

 waters in July and August. Quantities of the fry are seen in August and 

 September. They do not often form in schools in the bays, but in some 

 places are so plentiful that it is not unusual to catch five or eight barrels 

 at one drag of a seine. One man fishing with hook and line sometimes 

 catches one hundred in less than a day. The Trout is an excellent food- 

 fish, and of considerable importance to the fish trade. The demand for it 

 would be much greater if it was not so hard to preserve in this climate." 



S. C. Clarke writes that it is more of a game fish than the Squeteague, 

 active, vigorous and voracious, and capturable with similar fishing gear. 

 He recommends a bamboo rod of eight or nine feet, a multiplying reel 

 with drag, and 100 to 150 yards of fifteen thread flax line, with hook of 

 the Cuttyhunk pattern, and ounce sinkers of hollow lead. 



The Silver Squeteague, Cynoscion notJium, called at Charleston the " Bas- 

 tard Trout," while resembling in shape the two species already described, 

 is easily distinguished from them, being of a uniform silvery hue, the back 

 being slightly darker than the rest of the body. 



One or two individuals have been taken in Chesapeake Bay, but it has 

 rarely been observed north of South Carolina, whence Holbrook obtained 

 the specimens from which the original description was made. I have ob- 

 tained one or two individuals from the mouth of the St. John's River, 

 Avhere they are not distinguished by the fishermen from the "Shad Trout," or 

 Northern Squeteague. In the Gulf of Mexico, according to Stearns, it is 

 common in company with the Spotted Squeteague, and, as far as has been 

 observed, its habits are similar. It is, however, according to Jordan, less 

 abundant, and is not to be found at all seasons. It is most abundant in 

 September and October, but no spawning fish or young have been seen. 

 The " White Trout," as it is called in Pensacola, is caught with hook and 

 line in company with the S])otted Trout. 



On our Pacific coast there are several species of Cynoscion. The most 



