TALES OF FISHES 



way inshore over the shoals we hit bottom several 

 times and finally went aground. This did not worry 

 us, for we believed the rising tide would float us. 



Then we got in the skiff and rowed toward the 

 flats. I was rather concerned to see that apparently 

 the tide was just about as high along this shore as 

 it ever got. Sam shook his head. The tides were 

 strange around the Keys, It will be high on the 

 Gulf side and low on the Atlantic side, and some- 

 times it will run one way through the channels for 

 thirty-six hours. But we forgot this as soon as we 

 reached the bonefish shoals. 



Sam took an oar and slowly poled inshore, while 

 I stood up on a seat to watch for fish; The water 

 was from six to eighteen inches deep and very clear 

 and still. The bottom appeared to be a soft mud, 

 gray, almost white in color, with patches of dark 

 grass here and there. It was really marl, which is 

 dead and decayed coral. 



Scarcely had we gotten over the edge of this shoal 

 when we began to see things — ^big blue crabs, the 

 kind that can pinch and that play havoc with the 

 fishermen's nets, and impudent little gray crabs, 

 and needle-fish, and small chocolate-colored sharks 

 — nurse sharks, Sam called them — and barracuda 

 from one foot to five feet in length, and whip-rays 

 and sting-rays. It was exceedingly interesting and 

 surprising to see all these in such shallow water. 

 And they were all tame. 



Here and there we saw little boils of the water, 

 and then a muddy patch where some fish had stirred 

 the marl. Sam and I concluded these were made by 

 bonefish. Still, we could not be sure. I can see a 



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