VI. 



GAME FISH OF FLORIDA. 



I HAD always supposed that the fishes of the northern 

 coasts were of better quality than those of southern 

 waters, but an experience of three winters on the east 

 coast of Florida has convinced me of my error. In a 

 day s fishing at Mosquito Inlet, on the Indian river, we 

 often took six or eight species of edible fish, all of which 

 were quite equal to those of the North. They are also 

 very abundant, and not being much pursued are easily 

 caught. This is particularly the case in the Indian 

 river, where the angler might say 



&quot; They are so unacquainted with man, 

 Their tameness is shocking to me.&quot; 



The Indian river country is mostly wilderness, and 

 can only be fished and hunted by camping out, which, 

 however, in a Florida winter, is delightful, the weather 

 being much like the finest October days in the Northern 

 States. At New Smyrna, near the Mosquito Inlet, 

 there is also good fishing, and there is an excellent 

 hotel, kept by E. K. Dowd (the Ocean House), mostly 

 frequented by anglers and hunters from the North. 

 Here you are near the fishing grounds, and behind the 

 house stretches away to the south an immense forest 

 and swamp, containing bears, panthers, deer, wild 



