108 ALONG THE FLORIDA REEF. 



Following the direction of his finger, the 

 boys looked toward Long Key and witnessed a 

 singular sight. All around the shore the water 

 was in the greatest commotion, though there 

 was a dead calm elsewhere. Large bodies were 

 seen leaping into the air and falling down into 

 the sea with a noise that could be distinctly 

 heard. 



" Why, they're fish ! " cried Dick. 



" Come on, boys ! " shouted Harry ; and 

 seizing their grains they all scrambled into the 

 boats and headed for Long Key, which Long 

 John and Bob Rand had now nearly reached. 



" Just look at those fish," cried Tom, wild 

 with excitement ; " why, there's millions cf 

 them ! " 



He was not far wrong. All along the shore 

 the "jacks" a species of Carnax had driven 

 in a school of sardines, and so crazed were they 

 with the excitement of pursuit that they were 

 leaping into the air, darting through the solid 

 mass of terrified sardines, and throwing them- 

 selves on the beach by hundreds. The sardines 

 literally packed the shore for four or five feet, 



