THE GAME PISHES OF THE WORLD 



when the little fish is entirely outclassed. The tourist to Florida 

 or Bahama generally falls into the hands of a professional fisher- 

 man who scorns the rod, and does not carry the tackle of the 

 angler. But chub-fishing with an eight-ounce bamboo or green- 

 heart rod and a number six line is a diversion that would have 

 warmed the heart of Walton, or even the solemn anglers of old, 

 who despised the fishes of the sea, or the poet who wrote : 



' I love not Angling (rude) on Seas — 



Fresh Streams my Inclination please, 



Whose sweet calm Course to Thought I call, 



And seek in Life to copy all ; 

 In Bounds (like them) I fain would keep. 

 Like them, would (when I break them) weep.' 



America has the conger up to eight feet from Cape Cod to 

 Brazil, but it is not fished for. The lady-fish, Elops, and the 

 ten-pounder are smaU silvery fishes, the former two or three 

 feet in length and weighing in large specimens ten pounds. 

 Both of these fishes are remarkably active leapers and eagerly 

 sought by sea-anglers. In Western America, at Mazatlan, there 

 is a fine Spanish mackerel, Seomberomorus sierra, which affords 

 the natives an excellent food fish and the local Americans and 

 EngUsh fine sport. The Petos is a fierce and active mackerel- 

 Uke fish found rarely at Cuba and the Florida Keys. I recall 

 but one. It is the AconthocyMum solandri of science. It attains 

 a length of five or six feet and exceeds one hundred pounds in 

 weight. It is taken trolling off the channel between Cuba and 

 Key West and Tortugas, and on tuna tackle would make a great 

 play. 



Cubans have a fish known as the Bscolar {Ruvettus pretiosus), 

 also found in the Madeira, and I believe I saw one at the Azores. 

 It is also not imknown in the Mediterranean. The Cubans con- 

 sider it a great game fish, but they troU for it for the market, and 

 call it ' a-scellaring.' The fish ranges up to one hundred pounds, 

 its season following that of the swordfish. The httle pilot-fish of 

 the shark (Naucrates), when about a foot long can be caught. I 

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