CHAPTER XXI. 



SNEAD'S ISLAND. 



GREAT SCHOOLS OF MULLET SOLID ACRES OF FISH SNEAD'S ISLAND A 

 GRAND FISHERY "THERE'S MILLIONS IN IT!" WE " SMOLE " 

 AUDIBLY ON BOARD THE "SKY LARK" THE MANGROVE 

 MR. WEBB A PARADISE FOR BOTANISTS CENTURY PLANTS IN 

 BLOOM FISHING MACKEREL SIXTEEN INCHES LONG, WEIGHING 

 THREE POUNDS. 



WE enjoyed a pleasant sail down Tampa Bay on the 

 morning of November 27th, on board the steamer "Valley 

 City." The most interesting incident of the trip was the 

 great schools of mullet we saw on the shoals off Snead's Island, 

 near the mouth of Manatee river. Without any exaggeration 

 there were solid acres of them feeding on these shoals, and 

 they were as close together as they could possibly swim. At 

 some points they were in such shallow water that their back 

 fins and the upper rays of their tails were out of the water. 

 As they feed here, a seine three hundred feet long, skillfully 

 handled, would catch, at a low estimate, ten to twenty barrels 

 of fish at every haul, and they were not here in unusual 

 numbers at this time, either. Captain Jackson informed me 

 that it is no unusual thing to see twice or thrice the number 

 at this point, that we saw on this trip. He says he frequently 

 finds the water literally black with them, for a distance of two 

 or three miles along this beach. 



This story may sound decidedly " fishy," but every word 

 of it can be corroborated by a dozen people who reside in the 

 vicinity, and by any of the officers of the Tampa Steamship 

 Company. 



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