34 Big Game Fishes 



Key, rising apparently from the sea, is the first 

 intimation that Garden Key and its satellites are 

 in sight. Soon other keys appear, low sandy 

 islands, capped with vivid greens bay cedar 

 and cactus between which winds a channel so 

 deep and narrow, so blue and beautiful in its clear- 

 ness, that the angler in this out-of-the-way corner 

 may well wonder by what trick of nature it was 

 formed. It surrounds Garden Key, being in turn 

 hedged by an outer fringing reef upon which the 

 sea breaks ; now in soft monotone, or when a 

 norther rises, forming a vast semicircle of foam 

 from which rise weird and terrifying sounds, the 

 grinding and gnashing of the teeth of the reef, as 

 the dead coral heads are rolled hither and yon by 

 the incoming and receding waves. 



In the nooks and corners of this channel the 

 gray snapper makes its home, and that it has 

 the love of locality strongly developed, the home 

 instinct if you will, is evident from the fact that 

 week after week, month after month, certain 

 fishes are found in the same places. A certain 

 wreck was a favorite spot where the gray snap- 

 pers congregated. The old ship had long since 

 disappeared below the surface, but her huge tim- 

 bers still projected from the sand, forming a cover- 



