432 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



fishes equally cunning, and have they all become less 

 knowing in their ways ? 



There seems to be an impression that the gar is a 

 fresh- water fish exclusively, but this is a grave error. I 

 have learned from observing fishermen that many more 

 are caught in the brackish waters of Delaware Bay than 

 higher up the river. Whether they ever pass out to sea 

 I do not know, but certainly they often go to the very 

 dividing line between the bay and the ocean proper. 



My last opportunity of seeing a living gar was late in 

 the summer of 1880. My attention was attracted to it by 

 its coming to the surface and discharging a great mass of 

 air, which formed bubbles on the water. Then the fish 

 floated for several minutes, lying so near the surface that 

 a small portion of his entire length appeared to be out of 

 water. Suddenly he rolled over and disappeared. An 

 hour later. I saw what I suppose was the same fish, go 

 through the same motions, about one hundred yards 

 from the spot where I first saw him. The habit of 

 coming to the surface to discharge air seems to be com- 

 mon to them, but in the few instances that I have seen 

 there was no sound made at the same time, so far as I 

 could determine. 



