GAME FISH OF FLORIDA. 65 



hooks ; or you arc fishing with larger tackle for redfish 

 and a giant ray takes your hooks to the bottom and stays 

 there, or a furious shark of 200 Ibs. cuts oil your line at 

 the first turn he makes. I succeeded in capturing a 

 nurse shark five or six feet long, with rod and reel. 

 This is a shark of rather sluggish habits (whence its 

 name, Somniosus brevipe?ina), with teeth too small to 

 allow it to cut off the line. After 15 or 20 minutes play 

 it was gaffed by our boatman. 



THE FRESH- WATER FISHES OF FLORIDA. Of these 

 I have less knowledge than of the sea fishes. The 

 species most widely diffused, and also the most valued, 

 is the black trout, or bass (Grystes salmoides). This 

 species is also found in the western lakes and rivers, but 

 in Florida it grows to a larger size ; specimens of eight, 

 ten, and twelve pounds being sometimes taken. The 

 native method is with a bob, which is a bunch of gay- 

 colored feathers, with two or three large hooks concealed 

 in it. This is fastened to a yard or two of strong line, 

 and this to a stout reed pole. The fisherman sits in the 

 bow of a canoe, which is paddled by one in the stern, 

 and kept at such a distance from the weedy shore that 

 the bob may be skittered along the margin. Out rushes 

 the bass, and cannot well escape being hooked ; he is 

 either hauled in by main force, or breaks away. North 

 ern fishermen use the spoon, or sometimes cast with a 

 long line and gaudy flies. Once on the Upper St. Johns, 

 near the Everglades, two of us took, with spoons, trawling 

 from the stern of a steamer, twenty or thirty black bass 

 in an hour or two ; they were from two to six pounds 

 weight. Parties who go out from Enterprise upon Lake 

 Munroe in small boats often bring in great strings of 

 bass. 



