126 FISHING IN AMEEICAN WATERS. 



the islands which form the Elizabeth group, are filled with 

 shoals of them all summer and fall, where they forage for 

 menhaden and young mackerel ; and, anchoring in either of 

 the straits which separate those islands, we find that the cast 

 of a menhaden bait is usually met by the generous offers of 

 half a dozen fish, whose whirls make the tide boil. Were it 

 not that the electrical jerk of the bite of a large bluefish has 

 such great power in it as to make the angler sometimes feel 

 that he too is being fished for, and that its teeth are so sharp 

 as to make strong and heavy tackle necessary, it would be 

 considered incomparably the highest game-fish of the Ameri- 

 can coast. 



When estimating the value of anglers' fishes by the play 

 they give, and the scenes into which the angler is led in 

 search of each kind, the bluefish must occupy a foremost 

 rank ; and the man who has neither trolled nor still-baited for 

 this peculiar fish the best breakfast fish on our coast except 

 the Spanish mackerel has two treats in store, which, the 

 sooner he improves, the earlier he will regret that he had not 

 tasted before. 



SECTION TENTH. 



THE SPANISH MACKEREL. 



Lovely with all their spangled dyes, 

 Fairer than flush'd autumnal skies, 

 With gold-drops all their sides a-glow, 

 Tinct like the rainbow's prismy bow, 

 The Spanish mackerel gorgeous roam 

 The rolling, yeasty world of foam ; 

 Now glittering o'er the waves they skim, 

 Now lost in deep abysses swim. 



This incomparable breakfast luxury is a comparative stran- 

 ger to us, and, though never known to venture as far north 

 as the fortieth degree of latitude until about ten years since, 

 yet his families are now as numerous on our coast as are those 

 of most other estuary fishes. He is coy and careful, slow to 

 make acquaintance, and doubtful of a squid or baited hook. 



