388 



OKDEKS OF FISHES— SPINY-FINNED FISHES 



MISCELLANEOUS SPINY-FINNED 

 FISHES. 



The Blueflsh 1 is a fish for men. To take it 

 in orthodox fashion, go to treeless but delightful 

 Block Island, pay your dollar-fifty, take deck 

 passage on a low-browed, broad-beamed cat- 

 boat, don a full suit of oil-skins, and set sail for 

 blue water. If the wind is so light that the 

 sailing is uninteresting, you get no fish. But 

 if there is a stiff breeze, and you go up and down 

 the eastern side of the island at racing speed, 

 the Bluefish will come chasing after you to bite 

 at your dummy fish, and give you a hundred 

 thrills to the minute while you are hauling them 

 in. If it happens that the bite of a bear has 



THE SPANISH MACKEREL. 



put two of the fingers of your right hand out of 

 commission, that hand will have all it can pos- 

 sibly do to grasp the line adequately, and haul in. 



Fishing for Bluefish in a good breeze — with not 

 too much sea on — is like hunting mountain-sheep 

 amid grand scenery. Half the sport is in the 

 fine surroundings. 



Drs. Jordan and Evermann say that this fish 

 is found all the way from our coast to the Cape 

 of Good Hope, the Mediterranean, the Indian 

 Ocean and the Malay Archipelago, "a wandering 

 fish . . . sometimes disappearing from certain 

 regions for many years at a time." Professor 

 Baird always considered it, of all our coast fishes, 

 one of the most destructive to marine life, a 

 genuine wolverine of the sea. 



1 Po-mal' o-mus sal-ta'trix. 



The Bluefish swim in schools, ready to pounce 

 upon anything edible that comes along. Once a 

 cat-boat from which four of us were fishing sailed 

 swiftly through a school. Within about five 

 seconds, four fish struck in a rush that was prac- 

 tically simultaneous, and amid flying spray and 

 general excitement, four vigorous victims of 

 misplaced confidence were hauled aboard. A 

 fish which is so greedy that it kills more fish- 

 prey than it can use surely is a good fish to pur- 

 sue for sport. 



On our coast this fine fish is fairly common 

 from Florida to northern Maine, ranging in size 

 from 5 to 20 pounds. As a food fish it ranks on 

 the bill of fare next to shad. Owing to its known 

 voracity, it is debited with the annual destruc- 

 tion of an enormous quantity of other fishes. 

 On the hook it is savagely courageous, and fights 

 to the last. 



Of all North American fishes, this species 

 stands fifth in commercial value, being surpassed 

 only by the Pacific salmon, cod, shad, and mul- 

 let. In 1S97 — the last year fully reported — the 

 catch amounted to twenty million pounds, worth 

 $643,705. 



The Spanish Mackerel 2 may stand as a 

 typical representative of the Mackerel Family 

 (Scombridae), in which we find the Common 

 Mackerel of the North, the Kingfish of our 

 tropical waters, and the Tuna. It is a large and 

 showy fish, colored silvery white and dark metal- 

 lic blue, and no cruise in Floridian or Cuban 

 waters is complete without it. It is a favorite 

 in all markets reached by it, and in flavor it is 

 a fair rival of the bluefish. 



To every sportsman, the finest thing about 

 this fish is the catching of it, on a one-hundred- 

 foot line and a hook baited with that least ap- 

 petizing of all baits this side of angle-worms — a 

 white rag! Like the bluefish, the Spanish Mack- 

 erel and kingfish both bite best when the sails 

 are well filled, and the boat is making about 

 twelve miles per hour. In 1902 the total catch 

 for the United States amounted to 1,703,224 

 pounds, valued at $112,342. 



It would require many pages to contain a really 

 adequate life-sketch of this interesting fish, which 

 ranges most erratically, in great schools — or in 

 none at all — from the Gulf of Mexico to Block 

 Island. It comes north only in the spring and 



2 Scom-be-rom' o-rus mac-u-la'tus. 



