452 NATURAL HISTOEY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Balsam, of New Berlin, told me that teu or twelve years ago a man with a cast-net could easily 

 take four or five hundred Mullet in a day, while now it is difficult to get any; this is due in part 

 to their shyness, Mullet were comparatively scarce in the Saint John's in 1877, though plenty in 

 1876. The fishermen with whom I have talked favor the passage of laws prohibiting the use of 

 gill-nets with a smaller mesh than three inches, and thus to allow the escape of the young fish, 

 and of a close time during which fishing shall cease — ^for instance, from Saturday night to Monday 

 morning. And then they say, with a regretful shake of the head, that the Mullet always run best 

 on Sunday. There are probably one hundred or more mullet nets on the Saint John's, yielding 

 an average of perhaps five thousand Mullet each annually. The fisheries are chiefly carried 

 on by negroes in small boats, dug-outs, and skiffs, although every resident fishes for Mullet in 

 summer when there is nothing else to do, and when the Mullet is the best food and the easiest 

 obtained. There is no salting business of commercial importance in East Florida, though consid- 

 erable quantities are put up for domestic consumption. Salt MuUet sell at the rate of eight or ten 

 dollars a barrel, or five or six fish for twenty-five cents. I had an opportunity of tasting some 

 salted by a negro at Mill Cove, and can bear testimony to their excellence. Their flavor is more 

 like that of a salted salmon than of a mackerel, and they are hard, toothsome, and not at all 

 "muddy" in taste, this last being the usual charge made against the Mullet. Usually only the 

 "Fat Mullet" are salted, the "Eoe Mullet" coming later in the season, when they can easily be 

 shipped. 



To prepare a Mullet for salting, the head is first cut off, then a cut is made on each side of the 

 back-bone, down the back, and the bone is removed; the fish may then be spread out flat and 

 packed in a barrel. In packing, the flesh side is carefully placed up, the skin down. The fish are 

 spread out flat upon the skin side and are laid in tiers across the bottom of the barrel, each tier 

 being covered with salt. Care is taken to have the direction of the bodies in the different tiers at 

 right angles to each other. When the Mullet are scaled before packing they command a some- 

 what higher price. Mullet roes, though usually eaten fresh, are sometimes salted and dried in the 

 sun. In this condition they are eaten raw, like dried beef, or are fried. Largo ones sell for ten 

 cents a pair. Fishermen often boil the heads to extract the oil, which they use to lubricate their 

 guns. 



"In the Lower Saint John's," according to Oapt. David Kemps, an experienced Connecticut 

 fisherman who has lived and fished for twelve years at Yellow Bluffs, " the Mullet are resident 

 throughout the year, though most abundant in September and October. The fishing season begins 

 in July and August and continues until December. They are three times more abundant than any 

 other species, though not half as abundant as they were ten years ago. The decrease in numbers is 

 due in part to the fisheries, but chiefly to the great number of steamers. The largest MuUet weigh 

 eleven pounds and are twenty -three inches long; this, however, is above the average size, which 

 measures thirteen inches and weighs two and a half pounds. They attain their growth in four 

 years, each year adding half a pound to their weight. They school best in easterly weather, the 

 schools being largest toward the end of the season. They swim at the surface, and usually against 

 the wind. The "Fat Mullet" come down the river in August and September, and rapidly increase 

 in size, becoming "Eoe Mullet" in October and November. They feed by suction and on blind 

 mosquitoes. They run out into salt and brackish water to spawn. They are supposed to spawn 

 in November, on the shallows near the mouth of the river, in warm and brackish water. When 

 they are caught in the gill-nets the spawn runs out of them ; it is of the size of No. 3 shot, and 

 red; it floats at the surface until it is hatched, which takes place in about three days. They spawn 

 at about four years of age, the fish mixing indiscriminately in the schools. C^t-fish and eels prey 



