SALT-WATER FISH AND FISHING. 287 



a single wattle or cirrus under the chin, which is no doubt an 

 organ of feeling or touch in procuring its food. Its average 

 weight is a pound, though sometimes taken as high as two 

 pounds. Fins : first dorsal, ten spines, of which the third is 

 much attenuated, terminating in a filament ; second dorsal, 

 one weak spine and twenty-five rays ; ventrals, one spine and 

 five rays ; pectorals, twenty rays ; anal, one spine and eight 

 rays ; caudal, eighteen rays. 



Professor Baird says the young of this fish have been 

 taken at Beesley's Point, near Great Egg Harbor. Their 

 almost total disappearance from our bays for successive sum- 

 mers, and then their sudden reappearance, has led me to the 

 belief that most of them are emigrants from the south. Like 

 most of the Scienoids, they are evidently mollusc-eating fish ; 

 for they are always found near muscle-beds. The smallness of 

 the mouth, however, and the absence of crushing teeth and 

 incisors, suggest the belief that they feed entirely on seedling 

 muscles and clams, and small Crustacea. They are found 

 mostly in the coves, and on the sand-bars and flats, where 

 there is little current, and not often in the channels or deep 

 tideways. 



Barb Fishing. — In angling for this fish, a good bass rod 

 of twelve feet is best ; a light sinker is sufficient, say a bullet 

 of a quarter or half ounce, which should be placed at the 

 bottom of the reel-line, where two snoods, one of twelve and 

 one of twenty-four inches, with No. 1 or Kirby hooks, 

 should be attached. The sinker should touch the bottom, 

 where the fish generally seeks its food. When on the feed, 

 it seizes the bait without nibbling, but frequently there is a 

 premonitory shake, then a vigorous pull, and under goes the 

 tip of the rod ; after a stout resistance, your prize is brought 

 to the surface and alongside the boat, but the least slacking 

 of the line, and he is off again, and in the second round is 



