296 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



which, the Mullet is, in summer, considered the best table- 

 fish on the coast. The use of the cast-net looks easy, but it 

 really requires considerable practice and some strength of 

 arm to deliver it properly; and the beginner must be careful 

 to have no buttons on his dress to catch in the net, other- 

 wise it may pull him down, as has often happened to ambi- 

 tious novices. 



We then proceeded up the creek, the banks of which are 

 low and covered with salt grass, and bordered with man- 

 grove trees; the trees which, as we learn from scientists, have 

 built up the peninsula of Florida, assisting the subaqueous 

 work of the coral insect. We anchor in a deep channel 

 about half a mile above the mouth of the creek, and near the 

 bank; the boat swings to the tide. I take the stern, the 

 major amidship, and P. at the bow. We then cut up a few 

 Mullets into chunks of two inches square, and baited our hooks. 



We each had a bamboo rod, eight feet long, with reels 

 holding one hundred yards of line, with 7-0 Limerick 

 hooks, and one ounce running sinkers. I made a cast about 

 twenty five feet astern, and P., taking the major's rod, 

 cast the bait into midstream fifty feet away. "Now," said 

 he, "let the bait lie on the bottom; if there is any Bass 

 around they'll find it." He baited his own hook, on a 

 heavy hand-line, with half a Mullet, and swinging it around 

 his head, cast it one hundred feet astern. 



We were in a wilderness of wood and water, with no traces 

 of human occupation. A flock of blackbirds circling above 

 the marsh, a white heron sitting on a mangrove tree, a fish- 

 hawk occasionally stooping for a fish, and a few turkey- 

 buzzards wheeling aloft in graceful flight, were all the animal 

 life in view. 



"How far does the tide make up here.''" said I. 



"Three or four miles generally, but in rainy weather the 

 creek is fresh clear to the mouth, so that the Black Bass are 

 caught where we are now." 



