THE BAEEACTJDA 



of sea-food know what good fish is. On an ocean liner somewhere 

 in mid-ocean, I was attracted by the word bluefish on the menu. 

 It was, of course, cold storage fish and had lost its flavour entirely. 

 On my last bluefish expedition, not a thousand miles from Fisher's 

 Island, Long Island Sound, I was awakened in the morning by the 

 jumping of bluefish in the box as the cook received them aUve 

 from a fisherman who had caught them but a few moments before. 

 They were broiled at once ; not an hour had passed since the bluefish 

 was ahve and swimming, and it was a dish for the gods. Another 

 fine game fish, the pollack, becomes so soft in a few hours, often 

 minutes, that it is unfit for food, according to the ethics of the 

 epicure. In Key West, and especially Cuba, One often hears that 

 the barracuda is poisonous, but this is a tradition. One of my 

 old fishing companions, a professional, insisted that all Cuban 

 fish were poisonous on account of the copper in the water. 



The big barracuda is 8phyraena larracuda. It ranges from 

 Brazil to the Bermudas. There are several species : one (8. ensis), 

 in the Gulf of California, and off Panama ; another, about two 

 feet in length, S. guachanche, is found with the big barracuda ; a 

 small species is found about Cuba, the picadilla ; another still, 

 8. horealis, ranges from Cape Fear to Cape Cod. The European 

 species resemble the CaUfornian form very closely. 



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