3l8 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



my bait some distance before it reached the bottom. As 

 I raised my sinker, I felt a nibble, and hooked the fish, which 

 was a good one, and made several short runs and surges 

 before I got him near the boat, then he went for the bottom 

 so strongly that six inches of my rod tip went under. When 

 I got him alongside so that the net was put under him, he 

 was found to be a four-pounder in good condition. 



As P. unhooked the Sheep's-head, he said: "I reckon, 

 professor, they have got your bait." And so it proved. 



"Why, I felt nothing," said he. 



"The fish in this channel are well posted, "said P.; "they 

 know how to steal bait." 



Again and again the professor put out his line, and again 

 his bait was taken. In the meantime I boated another of 

 three pounds, and lost another by the breaking of a hook. 

 Presently the professor managed to save a two-pound 

 Sheep's-head, and then another. We got ten here, when our 

 bait gave out and we went down the river. A hundred yards 

 below where we fished, the high bank drops to a low sandy 

 f^at, which extends south half a mile to the Inlet; this flat 

 shore extends a quarter of a mile east, to the ocean. We 

 left this shore and struck across the river west through a mile 

 of shallows and sand-bars, with narrow channels between 

 them. On these sand-banks were flocks of wading birds, 

 willets, plover, yellow-legs, oyster-catchers, and gulls, and 

 on the bank of the Inlet sat a great fiock of brown pelicans, 

 apparently asleep, their great bills and pouches resting on 

 the sand. 



"I must come here with my gun," said the professor; "I 

 want some of those birds for our museum." 



The other boat was following us, and hailed: "How many 

 fish, judge.'" 



"About a dozen — and you.''" 



"Only three Sheep's-head." 



As we approached the west shore, we found it to be a low 



