THE RED-SNAPPER FISHERY. 587 
As a rule groupers do not become much distorted, but instead have their stomach protruded 
from their mouths. In such cases the stomach, when pricked, collapses and goes back to its proper 
place. m 
Some of the fishermen have finger “stalls” to prevent the hard lines from wearing and cutting 
their fingers, but they are not in general use. They are knitted woolen coverings for each separate 
finger. The Connecticut fishermen have a leather thuinb “stall” to use in their business, so that 
they can hold the fish, while unhooking and pricking them, by the under jaw, with the thumb in 
their mouths, and not suffer from the snapper’s long, sharp teeth. 
Both fresh and salt baits are used in snapper fishing. The former is undoubtedly the best, 
and of the different kinds of shore fish, bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) and lady-fish (Elops saurus) 
are the best, either fresh or salted. 
In the spring, summer, and fall the fishermen get sufficient bait of the kinds just mentioned 
on the beaches by seining, but in winter they have to depend on that which they have laid by in 
salt in the fall, and “bank bait” is fish caught on the “banks” and used fresh. Snappers are 
very capricious at times, especially in regard to their food. One hour they will readily accept salt 
bait, and the next nothing but fresh baits will do. 
In such cages, when no fresh bluefish or lady-fish can be had, sharks, leather-jackets, porgies, 
and like fish are cut up and substituted. In this kind of fishing the lines are not dropped quite to 
the bottom, for there the large fish and groupers remain, and as the fishing goes on it often hap- 
pens that the fish are tolled near the surface, when much labor is saved. 
Unlike the custom on Key West smacks, these fishermen prick their own fish as they are 
caught, and much more care is exercised that the fish shall not touch the deck or anything that 
would injure them. When the well is so full of fish that holes in the bottom cannot be seen, no 
more are put in, for if too much crowded there is risk of losing the whole fare. Eight thousand 
pounds is a good load, and these smacks do not average more than 5,000 pounds.* 
In winter it is necessary to go 50 or 75 miles eastward from Pensacola Harbor for snappers, 
while in summer they can be caught within 20 miles of it. The smacks belonging on the coast fish 
all the year, but are limited in summer as to the amount they shall bring to market. The Con- 
necticut smacks come to Pensacola in November and remain until May, when they go home to 
engage in fishing for the New York market. All the vessels in this business average one trip per 
week. : 
Vessels employed by the Pensacola dealers deliver their cargoes as they arrive in port, hand- 
ling them in bulk, and selling by the pound for fish weighing under 7 pounds, and so much 
apiece for all over that size. Large fish of any kind are not as salable as small ones, and but a 
comparatively small amount is taken at any price. 
Those vessels fishing for the Pensacola Ice Company have ice-houses in them and carry ice, 
so that if they have heavy weather, and the fish will be damaged, they are taken from the well 
and placed in ice. All fish, both from the well and from ice, are packed away in the dealers’ ice- 
boxes as soon as landed and weighed. The Mobile and New Orleans smacks bring most of theiz 
fares to Pensacola, to be shipped to home ports by rail or by steamboats. By doing this they 
avoid all risks of losing their cargoes by fresh water in Mobile Bay and about New Orleans, and 
also save much time. The additional expense of shipping in this way is more than balanced by 
the greater amount of fish that can be landed at Pensacola. 
HISTORY OF THE RED-SNAPPER FISHERY.—About 1845 the red-snapper fishery was pursued 
in a small way from Mobile and New Orleans, and for a long time the only red-snappers landed 
“The well-smacks are now being superseded by tight-bottom vessels and the fish are preserved in ice, 
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