ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



799 



completely in about three minutes or less. A 

 jewfish. from sixty to three hundred pounds or 

 more, is killed with a hatchet and the scales are 

 removed in blankets by being cut along near the 

 skin and as the blanket rolls off before the knife 

 of an expert the immaculate white skin of the 

 fish comes to view. Several other fish, such as 

 the turbot. grouper and hogfish are skinned in 

 the same way. but most varieties are truly 

 scaled. 



A fishing trip with one of the fishermen is 

 very interesting. He goes out in a motor boat, 

 over the shallows, and the smooth coral bottom 

 is plainly visible with here and there a patch of 

 eel grass and worthless sponges growing firmly 

 attached, for the cyclone of two years ago swept 

 away all the "roller" sponges, and the sponges 

 of commerce have been thinned out by the fish- 

 ermen. Sea stars and plumes diversify the sea 

 floor till he anchors off some key where he knows 

 of certain shoals. He sets his pot and com- 

 mences fishing with lines, but the treat for a 

 novice lies not in the fishing but in looking 

 through a water glass, a glass bottomed bucket, 

 at the wonders of the shoals. The shoals are 

 made up of huge round living coral heads which 

 stand clustered together with smaller ones in- 

 terspersed like soap bubbles, and in the inter- 

 stices lie "sea eggs," the long-spined sea urchins 

 which keep their barbed spines slowly circling 

 about in warning to any trespassers. Between 

 the coral heads from place to place there is a 

 "white hole," with a white coral sand bottom, 

 and possibly you will see what you call out as a 

 "nice little grouper." but when the fisherman 

 takes the glass and proclaims it a sixty-pound 

 jewfish you look again and can hardly realize 

 that there is such a difference in depth between 

 the white hole and the heads. On taking the 

 "grains," or spear, and making a futile jab you 

 realize that to a novice the differences in deptli 

 are as deceiving as a moonlight perspective. 

 The real wonders arc the fish, for you see 

 through the glass-bottomed bucket almost as 

 clearly as through the air, and the brilliant par- 

 rot-fish, blue tangs, blue heads, Spanish hogfish, 

 cockeyed pilots and schools of grunts and snap- 

 pers pass in constant review before your de- 

 lighted eyes and many strange and beautiful 

 fish surprise you if you are not acquainted with 

 the fauna and know what to expect. Possibly 

 a squall will come up with its usual accompani- 

 ment of a water spout and causes you to look 

 disquietly toward the roofs of Key West just 

 showing on the horizon ; but a squall is more of a 

 shower than anything else, and the forming of 

 the water spout absorbs your attention. 



BUYING "GRUNTS." 



LARGE JEWFISH, IN "FISH-CAR" BESIDE A SMACK. 



A BIG JEWFISH, KILLED WITH A HATCHET. 



