The Hogfish 131 
robalo (Cextropomus), which attains a length of 
three feet and bears some resemblance to a wall- 
eyed pike with the lower jaw of a barracuda. It 
is a gamy hard-fighting fish, and local sportsmen 
go to the Rio Plata for the purpose of taking it. 
On the Texan coast, on sandy bottom, is found 
another species, C. wxdeszmatis (Bloch), which at- 
tains a length of four feet and a weight of twenty 
or thirty pounds. I fished in vain for it in the 
vicinity of Aransas Pass. Singularly enough, this 
fish is rarely found on the outer Florida reef, — 
at least, I saw but one individual; but there 
were numbers of fishes there which undoubtedly 
were present all the time, for some reason seen 
but once or twice, even when fishing or drifting 
over the reef was a part of almost every day’s 
experience. It is not safe to exclude a fish from 
a locality because it is not caught. Many of the 
game fishes described in contemporary works are 
underestimated as to size, for the reason that de- 
scriptions are often made from market specimens, 
or from specimens in alcohol, in either instance 
large specimens not being desirable. There are 
numbers of fishes on the outer reef from four 
to ten pounds in weight which, if taken with light 
rods, afford fine sport. In this class I would in- 
