300 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



to a good fish which took across the tide. After five minutes 

 play I had it in the boat — a very red Bass of six pounds. 

 "This is really a Red Bass," said I. 



"They grow red up in the fresh water," P. replied. 



Now the major was fast to another; but his line came 

 home without hook, cut off by the shells; then P. hauled in 

 a five-pounder, and I got one of four pounds. But in my 

 next cast my hook was cut off. We got three more School 

 Bass here, when they stopped biting, and we moved up the 

 creek half a mile to a large pool with a high hamak on the 

 south side, covered with wild orange trees and magnolias. 



(The above word is usually written "hammock," or "hum- 

 mock," but I write "hamak," as instructed by Floridians. 

 The late Capt. Douglas Dummet, of South Florida, an 

 educated man, long resident on the Indian River, told me 

 that the word belonged to the Seminole tongue, and was 

 neither hammock nor hummock. This is also the spelling 

 adopted by Mr. C. B. Reynolds, one of the editors of "For- 

 est and Stream," himself a native of Florida.) 



"Now, here," said P., "we are apt to get big fish, Bass, and 

 sometimes a Grouper." He anchored the boat on the north 

 side of the pool, in a deep hole where the tide ran strongly. 



We with rods fished near the boat; P. sent his bait far out 

 in the pool; the major had the first fish — a Black-fish of about 

 a pound, which species is found smaller in these waters than 

 further north. Then I hooked a Bass, seemingly of great size; 

 it ran clear across the pool to the opposite bank, fifty or 

 sixty yards away, then turning, came back at full speed, and 

 ran wildly round the pool. After ten minutes of this work, 

 I brought him to gaff, when it proved to be a six-pound 

 Bass hooked in the vent, which attack in the rear had 

 so alarmed the fish, that it became frantic and fought 

 hard enough for a twelve-pounder. After the commotion 

 in the pool had subsided, the major took a Bass of 

 five pounds, and P. hooked a very large one, which. ho\ve\er 



