SEA-BASS AND OTHER FISHES. 3OI 



after five minutes play, broke his hook and then escaped. 



"That's a mean hook," said he; "I ought to have saved 

 that Bass." 



"Perhaps you did not play him long enough; it was a 

 heavy fish," said I. 



"I don't believe in fooling with them. I just haul them 

 in and give 'em no quarters," said he. 



"Well, here is a hook for you that ought to stand," 

 giving him one of my best Cuttyhunks. 



Presently my line went off steadily and swiftly, and I 

 could not check it. After sixty yards had run out and the 

 fish still went on, I said: "He has got most of my line; I 

 think P., that you must raise the anchor and let him tow the 

 boat." He did so, and paddled after the fish, so that I was 

 able to recover most of my line, but the Bass towed us some 

 twenty yards before it gave up, and rested on the surface. 

 As we approached, it made one more run, and then turned 

 over, exhausted — a fine, fat, copper-red fish, which weighed, 

 after we landed, twenty-four pounds. The contest lasted 

 twenty minutes. 



We then returned to our former station, and it being past 

 noon we opened the lunch-basket, where we found slices of 

 corned beef, bread and butter, and doughnuts, also a dozen 

 oranges fresh from the trees — which always taste better to 

 me on the water than ashore. 



"How many Bass have we.'" said the major. 



"Eight or ten Bass and a Trout; but we will get more yet," 

 said P. "They bite well to-day; we have not lost a fish, 

 except the one that broke my hook. Take another orange, 

 judge." 



"I will; they are the best oranges I ever ate." 



"That's what most people say — the oranges that grow on 

 these shell mounds are much finer than the' St. John's River 

 fruit." 



"Do you ever send them to market!'" I asked. 



