Mutton-fish 



or three hundred fish will be the limit of a day's hard sounding and 

 patient fishing. When the snappers are spawning, they often are 

 so abundant around the smack as to colour the water, but refuse 

 to take the hook, and in such times the only recourse is to search for 

 other schools. The fare is taken to Pensacolaas promptly as possible, 

 packed in ice, and shipped to many points in the North and West, 

 from Boston to Denver and from Texas to the Great Lakes. So 

 widely are they shipped that, as one dealer aptly remarks, " No man 

 who is willing to buy a red snapper has lacked the opportunity." 



Colour in life, deep rose-red, paler on throat; bluish streaks along 

 rows of scales, above becoming fainter and disappearing with age; fins 

 brick-red; dorsal bordered with orange, with a narrow blackish edge; 

 caudal narrowly edged with blackish; a large blackish blotch above lat- 

 eral line and below front rays of soft dorsal in the young, usually dis- 

 appearing with age; axil of pectoral dusky; eye red. The intensity of 

 colour in this species varies much with the locality. Specimens from 

 Porto Rico have the general colour paler and the black lateral blotch 

 more persistent. 



Mutton-fish 



Lutianus analis (Cuvier & Valenciennes) 



This snapper, which is also called pargo or pargo criollo, reaches 

 2 feet or more in length and a weight of 25 pounds, and is found from 

 Pensacola to Brazil, straying occasionally northward in the Gulf 

 Stream to Woods Hole. It is common at Key West, and in the 

 Havana markets it is the most important food-fish, being always abun- 

 dant and highly esteemed. About Key West it is found on rock bottom 

 in 3 to 9 fathoms, and is caught with hook and line. They are quite 

 gamy, taking the hook promptly and fighting well. They are found 

 throughout the year, but are scarcest in July and August, which is their 

 spawning-time; the eggs are non-adhesive and the size of a ripe-grain. 



In Porto Rico this species is highly esteemed. It is called 

 sama or pargo criollo. It is usually taken in the fish-traps set in 5 to 

 20 fathoms, though considerable numbers of the smaller individuals 

 are caught with the haul-seines in shallow water along the shore. 



Colour in life, dark olive-green above, many of the scales with 

 pale blue spots, these forming irregular oblique streaks upward and 

 backward; similar stripes more regular and numerous on caudal 



412 



