THE GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA ^ 31 



I have often derived both information and entertainment from this good 

 little manual, which is succinct and portable, and I strongly recom- 

 mend it to my readers. 



The feat to which I have alluded is thus recorded in its pages : — • 



"On Friday last, a gentleman of this city went out fishing from 

 Rflckaway into Jamaica Bay, with his son, a lad of twelve years of 

 age. They commenced fishing at half-past seven in the morning, 

 spent half an hour in dining at noon, and quit fishing at half-past one, 

 having taken with their rods, in six hours, four himdred and seventy- 

 two King-Fish. Their guide was Joseph Bannister; none of these 

 fish were taken by him, as he was diligently employed the whole time 

 in preparing bait." 



The writer adds that he admits this to have been " an extraordi- 

 nary performance;" but he goes on to say "that he has many times 

 taken above one hundred in a tide, though of late years these fish 

 have become scarce in those waters, it being supposed that their enemy, 

 the Blue-Fish, by preying on their young, have caused the scarcity." 



It is scarcely necessary, I presume, to remark that no such feats 

 are to be performed now-a-days ; and he is a happy and an envied man, 

 who succeeds, at present, in capturing a few brace of this delicious 

 game fish. 



I now come to the last section of my work, the deep-sea fishes, very 

 few of which are worthy of remark in connexion with the angler's 

 sport, although they are all of superior excellence, as dainties. 



These are all soft-finned fishes, but they form a separate class of 

 the Malacopterygii, owing to a peculiar arrangement of their fins, the 

 bones supporting the Tentrals being attached to the bones of the shoul- 

 ders which support the pectorals, whence they have obtained the term 

 sub-brachial. 



To this class of sub-brachial Malacopterygii belong the two families 

 of Gadidce and Pleuronectidce, Cod and Fiat-Fish, to one or other of 

 which pertain all the species which are taken by the drop-line on our 

 coast ; a sport which is almost too dirty, as well as too laborious, to ba 

 in very truth a sport. 

 Of the family Gadidce, of which the Cod is the type, we have 

 The Common Cod, Morrhwa Vulgaris. 

 The Haddock, Morrhua JEglejinis. 



