DEVIL-FISHIXG IN THE GULF STREAM 



479 



provided with rows of suckers, with 

 which it clasps and clings to its prey with 

 uncanny strength and quickness. 



As a rule, it will not give battle to man 

 unless angered or injured, but when chal- 

 lenged will fight to the last, doing its best 

 to pull the object of its wrath beneath the 

 surface of the waters. 



THE START FOR THE HUNTING GROUNDS 



From the Florida reef the run across 

 the Gulf Stream to the nearest islands of 

 the Bahamas is a matter of 65 miles. "We 

 started from Miami at neon, guests of 

 James A. Allison, on board his sea-going 

 motor yacht U Apache, with a 25-foot 

 motor-driven fishing boat bobbing along 

 behind in tow. 



In the party of fishermen were Air. 

 Allison, Captain Charles H. Thompson, 

 of Miami, the internationally known au- 

 thority on the fish of the east coast of 

 Florida ; Commodore Charles W. Kotcher, 

 A. G. Batchelder, and the writer, to- 

 gether with the captain and crew of the 

 U Apache. 



Assisted by the northeastward pressure 

 of the ever-moving Gulf Stream, we 

 made splendid progress, and that evening 

 cast anchor behind Bimini. a tiny isle 

 which rests like a jeweled feather on a 

 summer sea, the westernmost outrider of 

 the Lower Bahama group. Bimini is a 

 quaint little coral dot a few miles long 

 and a quarter of a mile wide, quite cov- 

 ered with clusters of coconut palms and 

 tropical plants, its tallest headland rising 

 but a few feet above the surface of the 

 old Atlantic — an out-of-the-world spot 

 peopled bv a few score of Bahama ne- 

 groes, who eke out a precarious existence 

 by fishing, gathering shells, and. in a 

 small way, cultivating sisal, the fibrous 

 plant from which hemp rope is made. 



Approaching the island, the ocean bot- 

 tom for miles offshore is carpeted with 

 snow-white sand, and so clear is the 

 water that there is no difficulty in study- 

 ing the vast marine gardens 30 to 50 feet 

 below the surface. 



Due to the white sand beneath the sea 

 and the glorious blue of the sky. with the 

 ever-changing cloud effects overhead, the 

 bewildering gradations of color to be 

 seen in these waters challenge descrip- 

 tion and fill the heart of the artist with 



despair, although he paint with the in- 

 spired brush of genius. 



OVERSEAS CEREMONY 



The Bahamas being colonies of Great 

 Britain, of course her authority extends 

 even to this little-known spot. There- 

 fore, Bimini boasts a port officer — an 

 English gentleman, who also serves as 

 the Crown Commissioner, Police Magis- 

 trate, Customs Collector, and Consular 

 Official for examination of passports, as 

 well as being physician and school teacher 

 to the island's inhabitants. In short, he 

 is the Twentieth Century Pooh Bah, who, 

 with much courtesy and dignity, meets 

 the infrequent foreign craft when it 

 drops anchor upon arrival, inspects all 

 qualifying documents, then sadly waves 

 adieu from the beach when the visitor 

 sails away. 



THE SEA SUPPLIES THE LARDER 



Up to the day of our arrival, there 

 hadn't been a piece of fresh beef or a bit 

 of butter on the table of the Crown's 

 Representative for nine months, much 

 less that of a single one of Bimini's 

 humbler inhabitants, for the isle is more 

 than a hundred miles from Nassau, and 

 even the mail-boat was conspicuous by 

 its absence during the period of the Eu- 

 ropean Avar, when enemy submarines 

 were in South Atlantic waters. 



So it is that the sea furnishes food for 

 the Biminites, supplemented by a few 

 vegetables, flour, and salt meats, when 

 they can get supplies from Nassau. 

 Conch, the marine animal which inhabits 

 the beautiful spiral shell, so fashionable 

 as a parlor ornament a generation ago, 

 is the chief article of food, and the na- 

 tives consume thousands of them each 

 year ; indeed, it can be considered their 

 main article of food. 



After we had received and returned 

 the official call of the Crown's Repre- 

 sentative, we had visitations alongside 

 from several shore boats, manned by 

 dusky-hued merchants, each tradesman 

 clad, on an average, in one and a half 

 garments, who, with a happy grin and a 

 hungry look, offered for sale varieties of 

 sponges, brilliantly colored conch shells, 

 sea-beans, and tortoise shell, the last- 

 named article being: obtained from the 



