The Barracuda of Florida 97 
barracuda come into view, the arrowlike form 
moving gracefully, imperceptibly by, like some 
grotesque torpedo with staring black eyes. Such 
fishes are dreaded by old “reefers,” and many 
stories are related, especially of the Bahama bar- 
racuda, which suggest that as regards fierceness, 
the fish should be classed with the shark. Yet it 
was my custom with others to swim across and 
through a deep channel daily where large barra- 
cudas were abundant, and so-called man-eaters 
more so; but we were never disturbed, and the 
only reliable instance of a barracuda attacking a 
swimmer, that came under my notice, was the 
one referred to. Regarding the vicious reputa- 
tion of the great fish, Jordan and Evermann say 
that it is “sometimes dangerous to bathers, being 
fierce as a shark.” 
The barracuda is an edible fish. Outside what 
might be termed “pan-fishes,” as yellowtails, 
grunts, and a few others which are excellent, I . 
would give it the first place; yet on the Cuban 
coast and in some of the West India Islands the 
fish is supposed to be poisonous at times. This 
was certainly not true seventy miles from Cuba, 
where I caught and ate the fish every month in 
the year. At Bahama and along the reefs of the 
H 
