The Gray Snapper 35 
ing or protected shelf about which the fishes de- 
lighted to lie in water from ten to twenty feet in 
depth. In general appearance the gray snapper 
resembles the black bass, but is longer and more 
slender. Its tints are a delicate gray, or green, in 
the shallows often adapted to the soft mauve of 
the bottom, or in deeper waters affecting in a 
general way the more brilliant hues of its sur- 
roundings — the reddish and yellow gorgonias or 
browns of the sea-plumes. Its eye is extremely 
beautiful; rich in browns with a brilliant flash of 
blue and at times red; an eye which follows 
every movement of the angler and is at once 
critical and expressive. 
The first vision of these fishes was my undoing, 
I never rested until I had taken one, a consum- 
mation which came only after days of patient 
endeavor. I was drifting along shore, looking 
downward from the rail of the dinghy, when it 
floated over the old wreck, where, circling slowly 
about, were a dozen or more gray snappers. They 
ranged from one to two and three feet in length, 
well proportioned, graceful, the type of all that is 
beautiful in a fish. Their movements were dig- 
nified and impressive, and there was a suggestive- 
ness of reserve power, as in the black bass, which 
