Tbe Gray Snapper 37 



entire community of the wreck to a frenzy in 

 their attempts to reach the bait. Staid old grunts 

 performed miracles of agility, in vying with the 

 parrot-fishes; the great black and white angel- 

 fishes, timid ordinarily to a painful degree, dashed 

 at the delicious morsels ; a long spotted moray 

 dragged itself from the lower story of the wreck, 

 and I could see by the rapid vibration of their 

 whips that even the crayfishes, which were backed 

 into sandy cells, were discussing the propriety of 

 taking the chances and joining the melee. 



I had been spending a part ' of nearly every 

 day upon the reef fishing or floating over the 

 beds of olive-green coral, but now gave up other 

 piscatorial pursuits and devoted myself to the 

 gray snapper. I fished early and late, even at 

 night. I tried them at the flood and quarter ebb, 

 with light lines and dark, with baits whose variety 

 would have arrested the attention of the ghost of 

 Walton. I laid at their shrine young mullets, live 

 shad (Xystaema), gigantic shrimps; caught at great 

 expense of time and patience luscious sea- worms; 

 excavated from the deep mud the soft portions of 

 the rare queen conch clams, not the base-born 

 bivalve of commerce, but a brilliant, radiant crea- 

 ture of dazzling hues. In desperation, I even 



