A SLY BAIT THIEF. 109 



hooks, or mauling and mutilating the bait. It is a greedy 

 little shiny sinner, which is both herbivorous and carnivor- 

 ous, foraging on both fish and vegetable diets, and shoaling 

 with the omnium gatherum of bottom fish, which make their 

 summer habitations among the weedy banks called by their 

 name all along the coast from Maine to Georgia, from three 

 to six miles from shore, purveying every where from their 

 homes, into all the estuaries and tidal back-sets, for proven- 

 der. The porgee is one of the most numerous of coast fishes, 

 and as greedy as it is plenty. Dr. Brown, in his Anglers' 

 Guide, states that the steam-boat which runs daily to the 

 porgee banks in summer returns with many thousand por- 



THE PORGEE. Pogrus Argyrops. 



gees, besides the sea bass and tautog, averaging from six to 

 ten thousand as their daily catch with the hand-line. To the 

 mechanics and clerks of the metropolis these daily excursions 

 in midsummer to the fishing-banks are great blessings ; for, 

 besides the inflation of the lungs with bracing sea-air, the 

 change of scene, and the exercise out of doors, they bring 

 back more than an adequate compensation for the pittance 

 expended for the day's recreation. There can not be too 

 many boats engaged in making fishing-bank excursions, pro- 

 vided the boats are sound and well managed. In general, 

 the captains of excursion steamers are well acquainted with 

 the topography of the banks, and know where to order the 



