CHAPTER XXII 



THE SALT-WATER JACKS 



' O Florida, thou poem of the States, 



Thou coral garden where the warm sea sings, 

 'Tis sweet in dreams to drift beyond thy gates. 



Like voyagers old who sought immortal spring, 

 'Neath golden skies impearled with ibis wings. 



Afar from crystal season's lines of blue. 

 And cloudy conifers of ice and snow. 



And with the double sense of beauty view 

 In things we feel the things we are to know. 



And almost hear the palpitating strings 

 Of life harps lost in answering numbers play. 



Would that my song could like thy bird songs flow 

 Like winged poets to the sun -land true ! 



Sweet would I sing, O Riviere du Mai ! ' 



Hezekiah BuMerworth. 



AMONG the oceanic fishes there is a group which for con- 

 venience may be termed the Jacks. They are found in 

 many seas, but, as a rule, in the warmer temperate zones, north 

 and south. It was of Melanthus that the poet wrote : 



' I quaffed full bowls in a capacious shell. 

 Ye Gods if earthy men thus live and drink 

 Give me the land, the sea's a worthless sink.' 



Some of the jacks I have seen in Florida might have penned 

 these lines, as I have watched them take to the land in their 

 fierce rushes, dashing far out on to the beach, to slowly struggle 

 back again. This was the jack or crevall6 of Florida, of which 

 Mr. Izaac McLellan wrote : 



' Swift speed crevaUe over that watery plain. 

 Swift over Indian River's broad expanse. 

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