466 Striped Bass. 



notable place for large bass, and wonderful stories are told of the 

 catches made there — how, on one occasion, when the fish were in a 

 particularly good humor, three rods caught twelve hundred and 

 seventy-five pounds of striped bass in a day and a half. 



Looking out seaward some thirty or forty yards, we see three 

 rocks heavily fringed with sea- weed, which rises and spreads out like 

 tentacles with the swell of the incoming tide, and clings to the parent 

 rocks like a wet bathing-dress as the water recedes and leaves them 

 bare. We like the appearance of this spot — it looks as though it 

 might be the prowling-ground of large fish; and we adjust our tackle 

 rapidly and commence the assault. 



Into the triangle formed by these rocks we cast our bait again 

 and again, while our attendant crushes the bodies and claws of the 

 lobsters into a pulp beneath his heel, and throws handfuls of the mess 

 out as far as his strength will allow. He appears to have inherited 

 some of the taciturnity of his red ancestors, for not a superfluous 

 word do we get out of him all day long ; all efforts to lead him into 

 conversation are met by monosyllabic answers, so that, after many 

 discouraging attempts, we imitate his reticence and are surprised to 

 find with how few words we can get along. A nod of the head 

 toward the sea brings him into 

 immediate action, and he com- 

 mences to throw out chum vig- 

 orously, like a skillfully made 

 automaton ; a nod of another sig- 

 nificance, and he brings three or 

 four fresh baits and deposits them 

 silently on the rock at our feet. 



Thus we fish faithfully all the morning, buoyed up by the hope 

 which " springs eternal " in the breast of the angler, but without 

 other encouragement of any kind. Many nibblers visit our bait and 

 pick it into shreds, requiring constant attention to keep the hook 

 covered, while rock-crabs cling to it viciously as we reel in, and drop 

 off just as we are about to lay violent hands on them. 



The flood-tide, which had commenced to make when we arrived, 

 is now running fast, and has risen so as to cover the rocks on our 

 fishing- ground, leaving visible the dark masses of sea-weed which 

 float to the surface by its air-cells, and wave mysteriously to and 



