Giant Fish of Florida 



5. By breaking of the snell. 



6. By breaking of the rod, generally in the tip, but 



sometimes in the butt. 



7. By carelessness of boatman in gaffing. 



8. By attack of a shark. 



It remains to put before the intending visitor to Florida 

 some of the commoner but yet interesting sea-fish, less game 

 than the tarpon, less immense than the jewfish, that will under 

 a variety of conditions, and on days when the tarpon itself is 

 out of reach, afford excellent sport. These notes are not, of 

 course, addressed to the expert naturalist ; indeed, they are for 

 the most part very brief, and serve chiefly to introduce my 

 photographs, which may, perhaps, claim to be t^e most 

 characteristic series of the kind yet published. 



THE COMMON CATFISH (Galeichthys felis) 



As the turkey buzzards on land, so the catfish in the sea 

 act as scavengers that we could ill dispense with. The sharks, 

 on the other hand, with their fiercer and more predatory 

 instincts, may rather be compared with the eagles among birds. 

 These catfish are, as may be seen from the photograph, not 

 beautiful to the eye. Neither, for the matter of that, is the 

 condor, yet it is, perhaps, of more use to South America than 

 the humming bird. 



We here see a trio of catfish busy on the carcase of a 

 monster grouper that floats dead on the surface ; and what 



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