118 SHEEPSHEAD FISHING. 



met with, now, among the hunting islands, where 

 the barrenness of the land had secured them against 

 cultivation. On two occasions, I have enjoyed 

 excellent sport at such places. On one I took 

 twenty-three to my own rod ; on another, twenty- 

 four and desisted from fatigue and satiety. They 

 are never taken in such numbers, when fishing from 

 a boat with a drop line, on the rocks. It is very 

 rare, that as many as twenty are taken in one boat. 

 About two hundred yards west by south from the 

 " Bay Point rocks, 53 as already laid down under the 

 head of " Bass fishing," the rocky bed of the river 

 seems to be traversed by deep fissures, in which not 

 only the hooks of the fishermen are fixed, but the 

 anchors likewise. Though .these have their ropes 

 fixed with a trip in view of such contingencies, they 

 are frequently, nevertheless, so fastened, that they 

 cannot be extricated. In these crannies are shel- 

 tered, besides the black-fish and sheepshead, the 

 overgrown toad-fish (the sculpin of the South), 

 eels of an immense size, and another fish, which 

 I shall describe, and whose name I would will- 

 ingly add, were I able. I was fishing for bass, 

 in 1840, on this drop. My oarsman, next the bow, 

 was furnished with a shark line, with a chain hook, 

 for the accommodation of such large-sized sharks, as 

 it was not pleasant to have attached to a bass line. 



