FISHES OF THE E.\ST ATLANTIC COAST. 103 



pompanos, for wliicli they get a price three times as high as for other 

 fish. A few soles, sea trout, and the roe of mullet and black drum 

 make up the remainder of their cargoes. These roes are dried and 

 smoked, and used instead of caviare by the Spaniards, who are very 

 fond of them." 



It may be added that these mullet roes are still prepared for sale 

 ■on the east coast, being much used by the Spaniards and Minorcans 

 of St. Augustine. My host at Halifax Inlet, B. C. Pacetti, prepares 

 many of them every summer, and I have found them to be a savory 

 relish for my lunch when out fishing. 



Captain Romans says of the Indian River : 



" It abounds so mucn m fish, that a person may sit on the bank 

 and stick them with a knife or sharp stick, as they swim by. i have 

 frequently shot from four to twelve mullets at one shot ; nay, our 

 boys used to go alongside the vessel in the boat and kill the catfish 

 with a hatchet. In St. Augustine the fishermen used to allow people 

 who brought a real (12^ cents) to take as many fish as they pleased 

 out of the boats." 



Romans has the peculiarity of using the small letter i, to express 

 the personal pronoun. We give the following list of the fishes of 

 the Florida coasts : 



" Kingfish, barracouta, tarpom,bonito, cavallos, pompanos, silverfish, 

 jewfish, rockfish, groupers, porgys, red, gray and black snappers, 

 grunts, mangrove snappers, hogtish, angelfish, morgatefish, dog-snap- 

 pers, yellowtails, muttonfish, mullets, murray, parrotfish, sproats, red 

 and blackjdrum, bonefish, sharks, stingrays, and an immense variety 

 of others, all excellent in their kinds, and we may with safety eat of 

 of all fish caught on the Florida shore, unless it be hogfish taken on 

 the outer reef, fori have heard of one of this kind having sickened 

 some people; but i have always eaten that delicate fish with safety." 



With the west, or gulf coast of Florida I am unacquainted ; but I 

 have passed two or three months of twelve winters on the south-east 

 coast, and have been out fishing in my boat nearly every day in 

 company with one of the oldest and best fishermen of that region, 

 Mr. B. C. Pacetti, some of whose knowledge I may have picked up. 

 In my first season I used a hand-line, like the natives, but soon aban- 



