BASS FISHING. 131 



ffsh tribes, the bass will take, in addition, and with 

 even more readiness, the skip-jack and the mnllet. 

 They are bold biters, and give the sportsman fair 

 notice of their presence. Their mouths are hard 

 and bony, and they sometimes escape by crushing 

 the hook. They run with such vivacity, that 

 though weighing less than the drum, they give 

 you nearly as much resistance in the capture. An 

 iron gaff is used to lift them on board. They are 

 taken in the greatest number from the 10th to the 

 20th October. They ascend the branches of Port 

 Royal Sound for fifteen or twenty miles, but are 

 found most numerous immediately about the mouth. 

 They either feed along the shallows in the surf, or 

 frequent the deep rocky channels of the river. In 

 Daws' Channel, there is frequently good fishing. 

 But greater sport has been had on what are termed 

 the Bay Point rocks, than on any other spot within 

 the inlet. The headlands, which, a few miles above, 

 are separated by an expanse of eight or ten miles of 

 water, approach each other at this point within four 

 miles ; and the tide water consequently rushes with 

 great force through this gorge. The sand has been 

 swept away, and the rocky bed of the river exposed 

 by this action of the water ; but the rock being of 

 unequal hardness, is unequally worn ; and the 

 more enduring portions jut out from below, in 



