f>2 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



haunts of bird and beast, the methods employed in their cap- 

 ture did I obtain from Jim that it was with deep regret that I 

 parted from him, and even overstayed my allotted time far 

 into early summer. We parted, with the naive confession 

 from him that I was " the best Yankee he ever ran across." 



The New Year of another season saw my boat scudding 

 across the wide northern head of the immense Indian lagoon, 

 headed for the veritable grocery, near which lived the year 

 before, the captain and Jim. Verily! leaning over the self-same 

 counter at which I had left him, in the same state of semi- 

 inebriation in which he had bade me farewell, ragged, shoe- 

 less and hatless, was Jim. His welcome was boisterous, as in 

 me he saw the source of former emolument and perhaps of 

 future gain, and he at once gave me the freedom of Salt 

 Point, and^ added in a confidential tone that his high office of 

 constable would secure for me unlimited and gratuitous minis- 

 trations from the denizens of Salt Point. Then, with the 

 air of one who has conferred inest imable favors, he walked 

 unsteadily down the shaky wharf to my boat, and instituted 

 a systematic search of my luggage, against which I knew it 

 Would be useless to remonstrate. The several articles of 

 Talue that he laid aside I left, relying upon a more favorable 

 season for their restoration. 



At last a smile of peculiar satisfaction overspread his fea- 

 tures. He held in his hand some loose copies of the Forest 

 and Stream, and as he ran his eye adown their columns and 

 noted the attractive headings of the different articles, his soul 

 warmed within him with a fraternal feeling for the paper that 

 chronicled deeds congenial to his nature. 



" This paper," said he, "is jes' the paper I want. I'll take 

 what few you've got here, an' when you get home you can 

 8en' me the rest." 



I acquiesced, of course. 



"Now," continued he, "I'll jes' go up an' indooee the 

 people of Salt Pint to s'cribe for this 'ere paper, an' if you'll 

 for'ard the s'criptions to the boss of th'establishment I'll give 

 you half." 



At this I ventured to remonstrate. Surely the people of 

 Bait Point would not care for the paper, living, as they did, 

 80 near starvation point, with no time or inclination for read- 

 ing. Half of them could not read and none of them could af- 

 ford it. 



"Looka-here, I guess I can take care of my own busi- 

 ness. Them folks up there are my Men's an' will do as I 

 Bay." 



Having thus delivered, himself, he walked up the wharf 

 with the papers underhis arm, refreshed himself and a small 

 bottle at the grocery, unhitched a scrubby marsh pony from a 

 denuded palmetto, mounted, and was about to dash away 

 when I restrained him. I appealed to him in vain ; he would 

 not listen. The whisky had produced in him that dogged in- 

 difference that usually preceded an outbreak, and he only 

 muttered, gazing ahead with stony eyes that seemed to see 

 nothing but food for mischief: 



"You see, I'm constable; got my commission from the 

 Guv'ner, an' if I can't do as I durn please, who can? There's 

 old Feester — dog gone his skin !— owes me seven dollars. Le' 

 go !" as I laid a hand on the bridle rein. ' ' Le' go ! " and with 

 a dash of spurs into his wiry pony and a brandishing of gun 

 and papers he dashed down the trail toward a weazened old 

 man. I caught up with him in time to hear : " It's jes' that 

 or th> jug. I'll give five minutes to say. Third time's 

 death !" 



I was alarmed. It was evident that Jim was crazy drunk, 

 or fast getting so, and I interceded for the aged cracker. 

 But this individual tipped me a wink, assured me that it 

 ■was "only one of Jim's cuttin' ups," and then, turning to 

 him, begged him for his family's sake to have mercy. 



" No ! it's pay up now, or march ; an' if ye don't keep up 

 with the pony I'll plug ye with a bullet. But I'll tell you 

 -what I'll do— s'cribe for this paper an I'll let ye off this time. 



" What kin' of a paper is it ?" 



"Never ye mind ; jes' s'cribe or travel." 



" Well, how much mought it be V" 



" TMrty-five dollars, an' dog gone cheap for sure!" 



"That ther is cheap, I allow, an' ye might put me down." 



"That's all I wants I" shouted Jim. "My Men' here col- 

 lects, an" it'll go hard if ye don't p.iy up." And he rushed 

 away, leaving me petrified with astonishment and over- 

 whelmed with the responsibility of. my office as collector. 

 His "Whoop-la!" grew fainter and fainter, and the jingle of 

 his spurs were no longer heard. 



" That ther feller is a tougher, an' if he'd let licker alone 

 he might be as 'spectable's I am ; but he won't, nohow. He's 

 jest a-goin' to raise dust, an' I must go down an' look out for 

 the ole 'oman an' chii'n. Have ye got a drop about ye, 

 cap'n ?" 



We reached the " settlement " a long time behind Jim, and 

 discovered consternation dire in every house. Like an ava- 

 lanche he had descended upon them, and had proclaimed with 

 threateniugs of imprisonment and even death, that they must 

 take his paper. Could the editor of that valued paper have 

 Seen the enthusiasm manifested both- by canvasser and sub- 

 scribers, doubtless he would have thought the printers' millen- 

 nium had arrived. It is needless to add that every man, wo. 

 man and child was a subscriber. His success only stimulated 

 him to further effort, and just as we reached him he was en- 

 tering the pine woods trail to the steamer at Salt Lake. He 

 drew up his panting pony, quivering and foam-splashed, 

 shook the roll of soiled papers, that hud not yet left his hand, 

 at me threateningly, and cautioned me to visit every family iu 



Salt Point and collect the money— for he had got their names. 

 I afterward learned that he reached the steamer or the 

 shore of the Jake, waded out to the boat and presented him- 

 self, draggled and forlorn, at the door of the ladies' cabin. 

 When interrogated as to his business there, he muttered vague- 

 ly, " Special Correspondent Forest and Stkeam," and fell 

 asleep. 



The people of Salt Point did not regard me favorably, and 

 I judged it not expedient to collect their subscriptions, but 

 put the greatest imaginable distance between myself and them 

 in the shortest possible time. Fred Beverly. 



For Forest and Stream and Bod and Gvm, 

 RED SNAPPER FISHING IN THE GULF 

 OF MEXICO. 



IN this part of the country the fish known as red snappers 

 are decidedly a favorite. In the markets of New Or- 

 leans, Mobile, Galveston, Pensacola and Savannah they are 

 abundant ; and from these points throughout the year, and 

 especially in the winter, they are shipped upon ice to many 

 towns and cities far to the north. There are but few varie- 

 ties which are bought in preference to them. They are much 

 sought after by the fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico, and 

 often constitute nearly the entire cargo which the smacks 

 bring into port. They are a gentle fish, and a diver may go 

 down into the well of the vessel, where they are, without 

 creating the slightest commotion among them. Indeed, they 

 will swim leisurely all around him, come up to inspect his 

 face, and allow themselves to be moved gently aside with the 

 hand: Should they be hungry, it were well if the diver kept 

 a sharp lookout to see that they did not take a nip at his 

 nose. They are measurably hardy, and when not badly 

 bruis;d or wounded, when put into the well, and the well be 

 not too much crowded, they will all reach port as lively and 

 fresh as though in the open sea. 



It is doubtful if one in ten of your readers knows how 

 these beautiful and delicious fish are captured. There are 

 doubtless thousands, even, who have no conception of the 

 construction of a smack, or how fishing for "snappers "is 

 carried on, and to whom a brief description of the matter 

 would be of interest. 



Cruising along the coast and among the islands of the Gulf 

 of Mexico, with a pleasure party of a dozen, two of us tem- 

 porarily transferred ourselves, with a change or two of 

 linen, from our little schooner to a large and neat two-masted 

 fishing vessel, which, by agreement made at Mobile, had 

 overhauled us at Sand I-land about the 10th of July. "We 

 sailed for Pensacola harbor, which we reached that night 

 about ten o'clock, and anchored off Fort Pickens. The next 

 two days were industriously spent iu seining for bait, but 

 with such poor success that at the end of that time ■only 

 about one-fifth of a barrel had been taken and salted down. 

 The schools of fish, and especially the lady-fish, which were 

 those desired, seemed to shun the shore and keep out in the 

 deep water, so that a cast was almost impossible. On the 

 third day, however, the captain ordered the anchor up and 

 sails set. This being done we passed out of the harbor and 

 headed to the southeast, from which sailors and passengers 

 inferred that we were off for the banks, notwithstanding our 

 small supply of bait. Our captain was a reticent fellow- 

 consulted no one, kept his own counsel, and you either had 

 to guess at what he intended doing, or wait for your knowl- 

 edge of his movements until he acted. But he was evidently 

 a good sailor, thoroughly posted in all the details of his busi- 

 ness, and his passengers had abundant evidence of his kind- 

 ness and excellence as a gentleman. 



It was the intention, as we learned afterward, to take us to 

 banks about fifty miles to the east of Pensacola, and soma 

 twenty miles off-shore— a spot known only'to a few fisher- 

 men; but in making the run we fell in with two other 

 fishermen, returning with cargoes from banks nearer at 

 hand. They had gone out only the day before us, and had 

 filled up so readily that our captain was induced to try the 

 banks upon which they had fished. So turning his course 

 southward, when some twenty miles east of Pensacola we 

 sailed on till the tall pines upon the mainland fell beneath the 

 waves behind us, when soundings were ordered. A hook 

 baited with a piece of fish being attached to the line, about 

 two or three feet above the lead, the lead is sent whizzing 

 ahead of the vessel, and as the nine-pound piece of metal set- 

 tles to the bottom, the man sings out, " Fourteen fathoms, 

 seventeen, fifteen, sixteen," and so on, showing the ridges 

 and uneven bottom sought, until the call "Eighteen fathoms 

 large," is sung out, when the vessel is luffed up, allowed to 

 drift, and the lead carefully moved about until the banks are 

 passed over — and no bite. We put about and ran across 

 them in another place, and still again and again, until uneasi- 

 ness began to depict itself on the countenances of the two 

 passengers, when at last the captain ordered soap upon the 

 lead. This brings up sand and red coral. "They ought to 

 be here," says the captain. Another turn, and while the man 

 with the lead is gently raising and letting it fall in eighteen 

 fathoms of water, he gives a sudden jerk r looks up and cries 

 out sharply, " Bite !" But he did not hook his fish. Another 

 jerk at his hook, and he sings out, "Porgie." How he knew 

 the uibble of a certain kind of fish, 108 feet below the sur- 

 face, I am unable to tell ; and I am skeptical on that point to 

 this hour. But over go the lines of two of the crew, and as 

 their four-pound sinkers carry their hooks down among the 

 coral, each one quickly calls, "Bite," and one begins hauling 



in, hand over hand, and soon has a fine red snapper, "weigh- 

 ing about twenty pounds, struggling upon deck. In a mo- 

 ment he is pierced in the side, two or three scales^below the 

 gills, with a hollow instrument, to allow the escape of the 

 large quantity of air he sucks in as he coraes up. ne [is then 

 plunged into the well, as the other sailor brings up "two red 

 snappers, one on each hook, which he soon disposes of in the 

 same manner. Tne buoy is thrown overboard to mark 

 the spot, and as soon as it can be done the jib is down, the 

 anchor cast and sails furled, preparatory to work. The 

 deck is cleared, all implements brought out, and every man 

 furnished with a line. The sun was about an hour high 

 when the work began, and from that time until nearly dark 

 every one of the crew, including the cook, with the two pas- 

 sengers, seven in all, were busy hauling up the fish from the 

 depths. There was a continual whistling as the wind escaped 

 from the bloated fish, and a splash every moment or so, as 

 they were tumbled into the well. At night I retired nearly 

 exhausted, my bauds all burning from the friction of the fine, 

 in spite of heavy "half handers," and thick flannel stalls on 

 the fingers most exposed. Many of our catch were porgies, 

 which would have been a nuisance, but for the fact that they 

 came into good play as bait. The porgies were voracious, 

 and with their smaller mouth, sharp teeth and strong jaws- 

 robbed our hooks continually, unless they got the credit due 

 to a villainous little fish called " leather jacket." Of this. 

 species we caught a number, but being fit for nothing they 

 were killed and thrown overboard. The next morning we 

 renewed the engagement at six o'clock, and succeeded finely, 

 until sharks came upon the scene and broke several hooks and 

 lines. The captain at once baited his mammoth hook made 

 of five-eighths- inch iron (with a ten-pound red snapper), and 

 attaching it to an inch rope, with about four feet of heavy 

 chain, for contact with the shark's teeth, cast it overboard, and 

 soon had a bite. But the first trial was futile, the hook being 

 dull and clumsily made did not take hold. The next effort 

 was more successful. In less than ten minutes the slack-rope 

 began to slide over the railing of the vessel. The writer, be- 

 ing nearest, gave the rope a hard pull, and fastened the hook 

 firmly. The crew rallied, and for a time things were lively. 

 The captain rushed down into the cabin, and brought up his 

 breech-loader, while the rest worried with a monster shark- 

 After a while he was brought near, and three large balls 

 were put into his head, which so far quieted him as to allow 

 the hoisting apparatus to be fastened into his jaws, when he 

 was hauled up alongside, the liver taken out, the head sev- 

 ired, and the body allowed to drop back into the sea. The 

 liver, after we had taken off quite a quantity of that part 

 where it was attached to the body, filled a half barrel, which 

 had contained a hundred pounds of mess beef, besides the 

 brine and salt, from which we estimated it to weigh nearly 

 125 pounds. The liver was between six and seven feet long. 

 The shark was estimated to be fifteen to twenty feet in 

 length, and to weigh about 800 pounds. The jaw was given 

 10 the writer, and on returning home through Pensacola and 

 Mobile it was a subject of great curiosity in those cities, 

 where such things ought to be common ; and he had to sack 

 it up to prevent being made a martyr of by the gathering 

 crowds. 



The next shark broke our big hook. Then we tried the 

 grappling hooks, and brought one close enough to put a shot 

 into his head and bring from him a stream of blood; but 

 there being no beards on the hooks the fellow- got off. The 

 fifth bite resulted in our hauling up another monster, which 

 broke the hook and ended the excitement of shark fishing, 

 besides compelling us to weigh anchor and move to another 

 part of the banks, where we drifted slowly about till near 

 noon, when it was thought that the well was full enough for 

 the hot weather, so we coiled up our lines and sat down under 

 an awning to rest and cool off. We had between 300 and 400 

 red snappers in the well. This, of course, did not include 

 those gulleted, hurt in the gills, or otherwise wounded, nor 

 the numerous other fish which were not considered fit for the 

 market, such as porgies, leather jackets, suckers and the like. 

 Three splendid groupers were caught, four spotted nines, and 

 one scamp; but all of these, except the first, died in the well 

 during the night. We also caught some large lings, but they 

 were too wild for the well, and were cut up and salted down. 

 Leaving the banks at two o'clock, we sailed away for Pensa- 

 cola, and at dark, as the great light in the tall tower on the 

 mainland was winking at us across the bay, cast anchor off 

 Fort Pickens. The next morning the vessel ran up to the 

 town, t dipped and seined the fish out of the well, tied them 

 in bunches with strips of a species of flag, obtained on one of 

 the islands off the Florida coast, and had them in big boxes, 

 in ice, on a steamer, and off for New Orleans almost before 

 one of them was through flopping. Here my friends and my- 

 self bade the captain and crew of the Frances E. good-bye, 

 and returned to our own little schooner, which we found 

 snugly anchored near the wharf awaiting us. 



The fishermen who follow fishing for a livelihood are sel- 

 fish. At Mobile we found them reticent and chary of infor- 

 mation about the snapper bauks. They looked upon us with 

 suspicion whenever we began to talk to them upon the sub- 

 ject, and when we mentioned going out with them they 

 seemed to fear we w T ere spies who wanted to ferret out their 

 bonanzas. The banks become exhausted sometimes, and it 

 is quite an item to make a new discovery. On new banks the 

 fish bite so ravenously, and appear so hungry, that they soon 

 nsj to the top where they U: making the captur- 



ing of them an easy matter, and enabling the crew to fill up in 

 short order. In winter they bite much more freely than in 



