318 Big Game Fishes 
excellent bait for channel-bass or drum. The 
capture of a drum of seventy pounds’ weight will 
be remembered, if the fish is taken with the rod; 
and when the angler reaches that part of Florida 
where the people try to sell him all kinds of 
articles, from picture frames to impossible flowers, 
all made of fish-scales, he may accept it as a 
foregone conclusion that “drum” can be caught 
in that vicinity, and later on he will witness the 
extraordinary scene of a longshore Cracker, a 
Conch, or a “ reefer,” scaling drum with a hatchet, 
for the very good reason that the fish does not 
relinquish its scales with ease. One black oars- 
man I had, cleaned the large fish by nailing the 
tail to a scantling and, standing off, scraped off 
the scales with a sharp hoe. 
One of the largest drums it was ever my good 
luck to catch was far out on the Florida reef 
and under peculiar conditions, — circumstances 
which demonstrated the fact that the big drum is 
possessed of Joblike patience. I was lying prone 
upon some staging beneath a pier, where I could 
observe the coming and going of fishes beneath 
me, unseen, and was intently watching the actions 
of a number of grunts, which were engaged in 
a game of some kind, when I saw a large, high- 
