302 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



**I tried it once, some years ago; I sent a few boxes to 

 Jacksonville and when the merchant sent my account of sales, 

 he brought me in debt seventy-five cents. Since then I find 

 it better to eat them." 



"I see," said I, "the weeds are beat down along the bank; 

 are there any cattle on these marshes.-'" 



"That's done by alligators — there's a big one lives about 

 here, and I've tried to shoot him, for he eat up one of my 

 best dogs, but the cunning brute hides away when he hears 

 or sees a boat." 



Just then the major, who had left his line in the water, saw 

 it running off, and found a heavy fish hooked, which did not 

 run like a Bass but fought near the bottom and seemed hard 

 to move. 



"That is a Rock Grouper," said P. ; "we often find them in 

 this hole." After about five minutes hard pulling, which 

 tried the rod severely, the fish was brought to the surface 

 and gaffed — a thick-set fish, brown with light-colored spots, 

 and small scales — weighing six or seven pounds. "Just as 1 

 thought, a Rock Grouper; a good fish it is; I have taken 

 them in summer weighing twenty-five pounds." 



As the tide had turned, we concluded to drop down with 

 it, homeward; when we reached the shallow pool at the 

 island, the major let out a spoon with thirty yards of line. 



"You might catch a Bass or Trout that way," said P., "but 

 you are likely to hook a Shark, and lose your spoon." 

 As we left the pool through a narrow channel with a swift 

 current, the major had a strike, and reeled in a handsome 

 spotted fish of two pounds or so, which P. told him was a 

 Trout. 



"It certainly looks like the Lake Trout of the Adiron 

 dacks," said the major; "but how does he come in the salt- 

 water.'" 



"The fish is not a Trout," said I, "but a cousin of the 

 northern Weak-fish, and not related to the Salmon; you see, 



