446 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



"March 16. Fished two hours, same bait seventeen fish, 

 weight seventy-one pounds. 



"March 18. Fished one hour, high-water to ebb twelve 

 fish, weight fifty pounds. 



"March 21. Fished two hours, half flood fourteen fish, 

 weight sixty-one pounds. 



"March 22. Fished one hour and a half, young flood 

 twenty -seven fish, weight one hundred and ten pounds. 

 Largest sheepshead, seven pounds. 



" I might have caught many more, but it would have been 

 a waste of the good gifts, for we could not have used them; 

 what I did catch, being ample for the use of the house. Be- 

 sides these, we catch the whiting, a small but excellent fish, 

 shaped like the white perch,* double dorsal fin, with strong 

 spines in front; color, gray on the back; belly, yellowish 

 white ; mouth small, teeth do. ; weighs from one to two 

 pounds. Also the sea trout, which is well described on page 

 82 of Mr. Scott's book, with the exception that I found the 

 inside of the mouth yellow, teeth few, but strong. In gen- 

 eral appearance it much resembles the lake trout of the 

 Adirondacks, and is a very handsome, game fish, of good ed- 

 ible quality; weighs from one to twenty pounds. But the 

 best and most sporting fish I found here is the redfish, or 

 channel bass,\ which bears a general likeness to the striped 

 bass (Labrax lineatus) in its excellence on the table, and its 

 game qualities when hooked ; fighting to the last, and show- 

 ing much sagacity, as well as great activity and vigor. First 

 dorsal fin, eight rays, with sharp spines ; second dorsal, twen- 

 ty-four soft rays ; pectoral, six rays, soft ; ventral, five rays, 

 soft ; anal, eight rays, soft ; tail, square. Color : back, steel- 

 blue; sides, copper-red; belly, white a black spot, half an 

 inch in diameter, at the base of the tail on both sides; from 



* Probably the real white perch, which are much larger than at the 

 North. G. C. S. 

 t Local names for the spot-tail bass. G. C. S. 



