The Madness of Fishes 



peculiar sound made by the beating upon the water of 

 myriads of tails would come from the adjacent keys, 

 the gulls would be seen flying, the lumbering pelicans 

 heading in that direction, and another war of extermi- 

 nation began. Tne jack, like many of its kinsmen, 

 traveled in large schools with a roving commission, 

 and under ordinary circumstances could not be in- 

 duced to bite. The wild excitement of carnage 

 seemed necessary to arouse them, but I found by 

 following on the edge of schools I could induce the 

 stragglers on the outposts to take a live bait or even 

 a dead one when manipulated properly. Such a fish, 

 taken with rod and reel, was a revelation, and I give 

 the jack a place high among the marine game fishes 

 of the Florida reef; too brave a fighter to take with 

 a large handline when the odds are all against it. 



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