PRIVATE DOUGHEBTY AtfD THE BASS. 143 



into the air, white belly, tail, fins, and all a-flying down 

 you come, shaking and dangling with a twitch. &quot; Pull 

 him in,&quot; said Private Dougherty, for I was a novice 

 now, and had never caught a fish before by trolling. I 

 obeyed his orders and soon had a big bass in the boat. 

 The bait yet good, away I cast it again. No sooner 

 done than up she goes again ! and into the boat I haul 

 him a monster bass, the boat meeting him full half 

 way ; and soon over it goes again, and in comes another, 

 and still over again, and still in another, and so on and 

 so forth to the end of the chapter, with no change ex 

 cept to use the piece of belly for bait when my other was 

 all gone. This sport continued for less than two hours, 

 when finding my boat nearly loaded down, and my little 

 fingers well cut and sore by hauling them in, I concluded 

 to stop at the round number of fifty, and returned to the 

 post. When I weighed my fish, or at least one of the 

 smallest and largest, the smallest weighed four and one- 

 half pounds and the largest fourteen and one-half 

 pounds, giving a fair average of ten pounds, or five hun 

 dred pounds in all. This looks like large bass in the 

 St. Johns river. 



I was not then particularly fond of fishing, and never 

 went to the place again, but Dougherty told me that he 

 continued to catch them in this way for some time 

 afterward, and until the weather got warmer, when 

 they ceased biting there and went out into the main 

 river, where he caught them, though much less abun 

 dantly. 



I visited the place, I think about the 10th of March, 

 when the oranges were yellow and ripe, and lying on the 

 ground. Here, in my opinion, is the spot for Florida 

 sportsmen. I think the bass spawn here annually, and 



