THE SALT-WATEE JACKS 



the yellowtail, a cousin of the amber-jack, which has many of 

 the characteristics of the typical jacks. It is common in Florida, 

 ^nd is found very generally in the West India Islands. It has 

 been taken on the American coast north of Florida, but it is an 

 ■exception ; the grounds of its choice being the warm waters 

 -of the south, where smaU fry abound in unlimited quantities. 

 Jn Florida it appears in greatest numbers in the summer months, 

 -ranging from five to twenty or even more pounds. 



Another jack is known as the goggle-eyed jack of Bermuda, 

 ■and very generally throughout the West Indies. Still another 

 jack, Carangus lotus, has a world-wide range from America to 

 South America and the Indian Ocean. Its common name is 

 jurel. Another species, the Cuban jurel, is common about that 

 Island, and affords excellent sport. Here, too, is found that 

 extraordinary jack, of thirty or forty pounds, known as Hynnis 

 ■cubensis, and another species, H. hopMnsi, of the Pacific coast, near 

 Mazatlan. 



There are a number of smaller allied fishes which are game 

 in every sense, if taken with appropriate tackle, as the Eunner 

 (Garanx crysos). Nearly all of these jacks ' beat,' the sound of 

 the carnage in the semi-tropics arousing man and bird. Mr. 

 W. H. Gregg in referring to it says : ' I have heard and seen 

 aU the above movements of schools of mullet in the Indian Eiver ; 

 many times their rushes, when pursued by porpoise, sharks 

 and crevall^, sounding like distant thunder or artillery.' The 

 pompano of the Indian Eiver country, eastern Florida, bears a 

 close resemblance to the jacks, and is a cousin. It attains a 

 freight of from five to eight pounds, though the average is 

 much less ; and if I am not mistaken, I have seen a thirty 

 pounder taken in a seine at Tortugas. A drawing was made of 

 this fish, and it corresponded to the typical pompano. 



Almost every angler has had an experience with jumping 

 fishes, and I have had many a pompano leap into my boat, not 

 to speak of mullet, gars and many more ; but the little pompano 

 is an adept. Mr. Gregg tells of a pompano that sprang into the 



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