ON THE EAST COAST OF FLORIDA. 217 



and are very scarce in all the channels and passes below ; but can be 

 gotten in many of the creeks and bays on the west shore of Biscayne 

 Bay, Card Sound, Little Card Sound, and Barnes Sound to the south. 



When I am on good Grouper and Snapper ground and cannot get 

 Mullet for bait, if I have no small fish, I troll with small phantom, 

 and can usually catch a small Grouper and cut him up for bait. The 

 Groupers and Snappers are "cannibals," so will take their own 

 species readily when cut. If my phantom fails me I have recourse to 

 my canned clams or shrimp, for a starter. Sometimes the grains 

 come in handy. 



From here south you will need to use a method of chumming in 

 vogue with all the market fishers of Key West, which is as follows, 

 viz : 



Cut out the meat of your Crawfish, which is mostly in the tail 

 and part of the body, leaving the shell and antennte (they have no 

 claws). Tie two or three of these together with a string, then put 

 on a sinker, and fasten it over the side of the boat with a line, so it 

 will go within a foot or two of the bottom. This is very attractive 

 to the fish, as more or less of the meat left on, and the antennae, dis- 

 integrate slowly, and float away. This is much better than throwing 

 overboard any kind of chum, as it will float away with the tide and 

 you lose the desired use of it. 



From Cape Florida south to Key West there is a natural law for 

 the protection of fishes which beats any law the State of Florida can 

 pass. This law is the fact that the rock formation is coral and under- 

 lies all the passes, creeks, channels, and the whole country. That 

 rock is jagged, crooked, lumpy, and irregular beyond description. 

 In many of the passes the bottom varies in depth from four or five 

 feet to twenty feet in a distance of thirty or forty feet. There are 

 holes and caverns of which you cannot see the bottom, while you can 

 see it around them where the water is twenty feet deep. The outside 

 shores show the same condition, and it is very troublesome to land a 

 boat and get out of it in many places, and of course walking on such 

 shores is difficult. I cannot compare it with anything, unless it would 

 be with a gigantic empty honey comb, with depressions and eleva- 

 tions on its surface. As a consequence, seine fishing is an impossi- 

 bility. A few drift and gill nets are used for Spanish Mackerel, but 

 I think without profit. I have seen none during the past two years. 



All of the " Conchs " among the Keys use only hand lines and 



