446 Fisoinc iy AMERICAN WATERS. 
“March 16. Fished two hours, same bait — seventeen fish, 
weight seventy-one pounds. 
“March 18. Fished one hour, high-water to ebb—twelve 
fish, weight fifty pounds. 
“March 21. Fished two hours, half flood—fourteen fish, 
weight sixty-one pounds. 
“March 22. Fished one hour and a half, young ie 
twenty-seven fish, weight one hundred and ten pounds. 
Largest sheepshead, seven pounds. 
“T might have caught many more, but it would have been 
a waste of the good gifts, for we could not have used them ; 
what I did catch being ample for the use of the house. Be- 
sides these, we catch the whiting, a small but excellent fish, 
shaped like the white perch,* double dorsal fin, with strong 
spines in front; color, gray on the back; belly, yellowish 
white; mouth small, teeth do.; weighs from one to two 
pounds. Also the sea trout, which is well described on page 
82 of Mr. Scott’s book, with the exception that I found the 
inside of the mouth yellow, teeth few, but strong. In gen- 
eral appearance it much resembles the lake trout of the 
Adirondacks, and is a very handsome, game fish, of good ed- 
ible quality; weighs from one to twenty pounds. But the 
best and most sporting fish I found here is the redfish, or 
channel bass,t which bears a general likeness to the striped 
bass (Labraz lineatus) in its excellence on the table, and its 
game qualities when hooked; fighting to the last, and show- 
ing much sagacity, as well as great activity and vigor. First 
dorsal fin, eight rays, with sharp spines; second dorsal, twen- 
ty-four soft rays; pectoral, six rays, soft; ventral, five rays, 
soft; anal, eight rays, soft; tail, square. Color: back, steel- 
blue; sides, copper-red; belly, white—a black spot, half an 
inch in diameter, at the base of the tail on both sides; from 
* Probably the real white perch, which are much larger than at the 
North.—G. C.S 
+ Local names for the spot-tail bass.—G. C. S. 
