MITCHILL ON THE SHEEPSHEAD. 383 



When the line or hook gives way, the accident makes a serious impression on the company. As 

 the possession of the Sheepshead is a grand prize, so his escape is felt as a distressing loss. I 

 know an ancient fisherman who used to record in a book the time, place, and circumstances of 

 every Sheepshead he had caught. This fish is sometimes speared by torchlight in the wide and 

 shallow bays of Queens County and Suffolk." Dr. Mitchill concludes his naive remarks by the 

 mournful words: "It is to be regretted that the Sheepshead too often corrupt for want of ice." 



Schoepf, writing of the same region forty years before, states that during the period of the 

 Eevolutionary war the Sheepshead was very abundant in the summer months and was a very 

 highly prized species. Some unknown writer contributed to Brown's "American Angler," in 

 1846, the following memorandum : 



"These noble fish have become quite scarce in our harbor. The writer has taken them 

 repeatedly near Governor's Island, opposite the Battery, but this was in days long since gone by. 

 Still, they are still taken, occasionally, at Caving Point and at the Signal Poles, at the Narrows, 

 also at Pelham Bridge and Little Hell Gate."i 



Scott gives the following advice to the Sheepshead angler: "If a resident of New York, you 

 will find Oanarsie on the Old Mill, near East New York, the most convenient place from which to 

 take a sail-boat; a boat is generally at hand at either place. Sail down the channel above the 

 inlet toward Near Eockaway, about a mile below Eemson's Hotel; feel by sounding for a mussel- 

 bed (they are numerous for a mile along shore), about two hundred yards from which, when found, 

 cast anchor far enough away so that, when the boat toles round from the tide toward the feeding- 

 ground, the cast required for dropping your anchor will be about fifty feet. The water should be 

 about seven feet deep at low tide, and it rises there from four to six feet. The best time is during 

 the period between high and low tides when the water is slack, and until it runs at the rate of five 

 miles an hour, or one hour after it begins to run ; for when the tide runs out it is then considered 

 that Sheepshead seek some still-water ground and wait for a moderate motion of the waters. At 

 the right times of tide the location of the mussel-beds is plainly indicated by a fleet of fifteen to 

 twenty sail-boats or hand-line fishermen. Many of them are farmers, who, residing near the shore 

 of Jamaica Bay, employ the interregnum between hay and grass, uniting their profits, and earning 

 from $3 to $10 a day, by fishing for Sheepshead. 



"There are many places along our shores better than Jamaica Bay. The Hand-line Com- 

 mittee makes it pay at Fire Island, and there are many superior feeding ijlaces in the South Bay; 

 about the wreck of the ' Black Warrior,' near the Narrows, is celebrated for great numbers of them ; 

 in truth, our whole coast south of Long Island is rendered inviting by this delicious fish." 



Norris wrote: "In fishing for Sheepshead it is a common practice in Lower Virginia and 

 other waters to drive down stout stakes forming an inclosure; to these different species of mol- 

 lusks will attach themselves in a few months and entice the Sheepshead; when they have made 

 it a place of resort the fisherman ties his boat to a single stake on either side at a convenient dis- 

 tance and throws his bait towards the pen." 



Holbrook wrote, in 1860: "At present the best fishing-grounds for the Sheepshead in South 

 Carolina is the breakwater at Sullivan's Island, or the Foundation Eocks at Fort Sumter, at the 

 entrance to Charleston Harbor. 



The Hon. William Elliott, in his "Carolina Sports," gives the following account of the 

 peculiar methods employed in catching Sheepshead in Port Eoyal Sound, South Carolina: 



"They are exceedingly choice in their feeding, taking no other bait but shell-fish. Their 

 favorite food is the young oyster, which, under the form of barnacle, they crush with their strong 



'American Angler's Guide, fifth edition, p. 198. 



