384 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



teeth. Of course they frequent those shores that abound with fallen trees. On the Florida coast 

 they are taken in great quantities among the mangrove trees, whose roots, growing in the salt 

 water, are covered with baruacles. Formerly they were taken in considerable numbers among our 

 various inlets. Wherever there were steep bluffs, from which large trees had fallen in the water, 

 there they might confidently be sought. But as these lands have been cleared for the culture of 

 sea-island cotton, the trees have disappeared, and with them the lish; and it has been found 

 necessary to renew their feeding-grounds by artificial means. Logs of pine or oak are cut and 

 framed into a sort of hut without a roof. It is floored and built up tive or six feet high, then 

 floated to the place desired, and sunk in eight feet of water by casting stones or live-oak timber 

 within. As soon as the barnacles are formed, which will happen in a few weeks, the fish will begin 

 to resort to the ground. It is sometimes requisite to do more before you can succeed in your 

 wishes. The greatest enemies of this fish are the sharks and porpoises, which pursue them 

 incessantly and destroy them, unless they can find secure hiding-places to which to retreat. Two 

 of these pens, near each other, will furnish this protection; and when that course is not adopted, 

 piles driven near each other, quite surrounding the pen, will have the same effect. Your work 

 complete, build a light staging by driving down four upright posts at a distance of fifteen feet 

 from the pen, and then take your station on it, provided with a light, flexible, and strong cane 

 reed, of twenty feet length, with fourteen feet of line attached, a strong hook and a light lead. 

 Instead of dropping your line directly down and poising it occasionally from bottom, I prefer to 

 throw the line out beyond the perpendicular and let the lead lie on the bottom. The Sheepshead 

 is a shy fish, and takes the bait more confidently if it lies on the bottom. When he bites you 

 perceive your rod dipping for the water; give a short, quick jerk, and then play him at your 

 leisure. If the fish is large, and your jerk too violent, the rod will snap at the fulcrum the grasp 

 of your left hand. It has happened that, at one of these artificial grounds, I have taken sixteen 

 Sheepshead at one fishing. What was unusual was, thit they were taken in February, when no 

 one thinks of fishing for these or any other sea-fish within the inlets. I ascertained, from the 

 continued experiments of several years, that they could always be taken at this season, and 

 frequently in January also. The difficulty is to find bait, for neither shrimps nor crabs are then in 

 season. In the case referred to the difficulty was thus removed: The lines were rigged with two 

 hooks; upon one was placed an oyster taken fresh from the shell, on the other an oyster boiled. 

 The scent of the first attracted the fish, but so little tenacity was found in it that, before the fish 

 had taken hold of the hook, the oyster was detached; but when, encouraged by the taste of the 

 first, the fish advanced to the second, that having acquired toughness from boiling, would adhere 

 until the hook was fairly taken into the fish's mouth. They clearly prefer the uncooked to the 

 cooked oyster, but the latter was more to the fisherman's purpose. Their fondness for this food 

 suggested the expedient of breaking up the live oysters in the shell and scattering them in the 

 vicinity of the ground; also that of letting down the broken oysters in a wicker basket. Each 

 plan is found effectual in attracting the fish. 



"The blufts, in their primitive state, in which trees enough are found fallen to give the fish 

 both food and protection against their enemies, are only to be met with now among the Hunting 

 Islands, where the barrenness of the land had secured them against cultivation. On two occasions 

 I have enjoyed excellent sport at such places. On one I took twenty-three to my own rod; on 

 another, twenty four, and desisted from fatique and satiety. They are never taken in such num- 

 bers when fishing from a boat with a drop-line on the rocks. It is very rare that as many as 

 twenty are taken in one boat." 1 



1 ELLIOTT, WILLIAM : Carolina Sports by Laud and Water. New York, ia59, pp. 145-149. 



