ON THE EAST COAST OF FLORIDA. 251 



While cruising up the coast from Key West to Miami, about ten years since, and 

 calling at Cocoanut Grove to replenish supplies, in casual conversation with Mr. 

 Peacock, the proprietor of the store, about fishes in the contiguous waters, he men- 

 tioned many with which I was familiar, and asked me if I had caught the Bonefish. 

 I answered, " O, yes, plenty of them." His manner implied a doubt, and he then 

 said, "I don't mean the Ladyfish, which is often called the Bonefish." " O, well," I 

 said, "that is what I mean. I never heard of any other." I then became much 

 interested ; he stepped to the door and pointed to Cocoa Plum Point, about two 

 miles away, and said, "There at the flooding of the tide, close up to the shore where 

 the water will oftentimes scarcely cover their backs, you will find them." So, as it 

 was on our return route, I told my skipper we would take the rowboat and call at 

 the Point, and he could pick us up as he came down. We rowed to the Point, a 

 long sand shoal, with the water from six to ten inches deep and everything on the 

 bottom for an acre around as open to view as the bare ground ashore was. I began 

 to think he had put up a joke on us, deeming it the most unlikely place to catch a 

 fish of any I had almost ever seen ; however, I thought that being there it would 

 be best to try, and so I fished around for a couple of hours with never a sign of 

 fish, much less of a strike ; but just as I was reeling home my line to leave there 

 came along about a half dozen of what I thought at first glance to be shadows in 

 the water, the movements of which, I quickly detected as fish, were so rapid and 

 entirely unlike anything I had ever seen in the way of fish before, that I immedi- 

 ately realized that I was in front of a distinctly new proposition in the piscatorial 

 line. But the skipper and friends were hailing me to the ship and I reluctantly left 

 the ground, with, however, the mental resolve that, living until another season, I 

 would interview that distinguished individual at closer quarters. 



So the following February found me at Cocoanut Grove, prepared with such 

 weapons as I supposed would suit the case. I could hear of no one who had 

 ever caught a Bonefish with rod and line, and the natives said it could not be done, 

 and that the only way they could be taken was occasionally with the grains, and 

 sometimes by seeking a school on the banks and wading stooping down, throwing a 

 hand line some distance in advance of the. school, the hook baited with chonch, and 

 if they weramot alarmed they would come along and take it; but to go in a boat and 

 cast with a rod, never, it could not be done. 



Well, I set to work under these discouraging prognostications. I removed my 

 station from Plum Point to Bears Cut, and for three solid weeks I worked and wor- 

 ried over those fishes. The bottom of the flats was covered with grass and the 

 feeding ground was very extensive ; I could see them by hundreds almost in every 

 direction, but no sooner would I get within casting distance and the lead would 

 strike the water near them, then away they would go like a badly scared flock of 

 quail ; and not only the small bunch being angled for, but every "mother's son" 

 would be off like the wind. At last, about wearied out, I had determined to give 

 it up as a bad job, when I discovered a space of about an acre of bare sand bottom 

 adjoining a small channel which connected with the main inlet, and beyond that 

 bare spot, extending a long distance, was a shallow bay, the bottom of which was 

 covered with a heavy growth of grass. I said to my boatman, " Put me on the far 

 side of that bare spot, and if we cannot catch one coming up out of that channel 

 we will give it up and put out for Key West." Well, we laid there very quiet for 



