356 Big Game Fishes 



determined the resistance, that one is easily over- 

 matched. 



In watching the fish I found that it made its 

 sturdy resistance by keeping its broad side to 

 me, fighting inch by inch ; and when wearied it 

 would bound upward and wear away round on the 

 other tack, presenting its opposite front, all the 

 time making a struggle that could but arouse 

 the admiration of the angler. These experiences 

 were, of course, with light rod and delicate tackle. 

 With a twenty-five-ounce rod six and a half feet 

 long, and a large line, the angel-fishes would 

 drop back into the ranks of " bait stealers " and 

 not be considered worth catching, nor indeed 

 would a trout under the same circumstances. 

 I have seen the black angel-fish taken in Vir- 

 ginia, though rarely, its home being in tropical 

 seas, and on the Florida reef and the West Indies 

 in general. There it is one of the commonest of 

 fishes, and by no means a poor table fish, though 

 there is a strong prejudice against it in some 

 localities, many believing it to be poisonous. 



Not so common, but a gamy catch, is the 

 yellow angel-fish, Holacanthus ciliaris, with brill- 

 iant yellow margins to its scales, its body not 

 so elevated as in the black angel, the tip of what 



