CHAPTER XXX 



THE AMBER FISH 



THE reader of these lines who has fished the 

 Florida Reef and the Indian River country 

 will have tried conclusions at Palm Beach, 

 perhaps, with a noble quarry — the amberjack, and 

 it is fair to assume that if he has taken a fish of over 

 fifty pounds it made an impression not to be effaced 

 in all the years of sport that follow. 



The amberjack rejoices in the name Seriola lalandi, a 

 euphonious term showing it to be a cousin of a famous 

 fish found about the blue waters of the Channel Islands, 

 a cousin with a long, beautiful dorsal fin; hence it is 

 known as Seriola dorsalis, and as it has radiant tints 

 of gold-yellow and amber on its tail and a gorgeous 

 side stripe of the same tint, it is called the amber 

 fish or yellowtail. 



The peacock is really the most beautiful of birds, 

 as the abalone is the most gorgeous of shells, but they 

 are so common that we think little of them. If pearls 

 were as large as billiard balls and could be had by the 

 ton we should not appreciate them. So the yellow- 

 tail, being the fish of the people, caught with ease, 

 evidently eager to try conclusions with the merest 

 tyro of an angler, does not receive the full share of 

 appreciation it deserves as one of the world's great 

 game fishes. 



I shall never forget my first view of Avalon Bay 



335 



