388 
ORDERS OF FISHES— SPINY-FINNED FISHES 
MISCELLANEOUS SPINY-FINNED 
FISHES. 
The Blueflsh 1 is a fish for men. To take it 
in orthodox fashion, go to treeless but delightful 
Block Island, pay your dollar-fifty, take deck 
passage on a low-browed, broad-beamed cat- 
boat, don a full suit of oil-skins, and set sail for 
blue water. If the wind is so light that the 
sailing is uninteresting, you get no fish. But 
if there is a stiff breeze, and you go up and down 
the eastern side of the island at racing speed, 
the Bluefish will come chasing after you to bite 
at your dummy fish, and give you a hundred 
thrills to the minute while you are hauling them 
in. If it happens that the bite of a bear has 
THE SPANISH MACKEKEL. 
put two of the fingers of your right hand out of 
commission, that hand will have all it can pos- 
sibly do to grasp the line adequately, and haul in. 
Fishing for Bluefish in a good breeze — with not 
too much sea on — is like hunting mountain-sheep 
amid grand scenery. Half the sport is in the 
fine surroundings. 
Drs. Jordan and Evermann say that this fish 
is found all the way from our coast to the Cape 
of Good Hope, the Mediterranean, the Indian 
Ocean and the Malay Archipelago, “a wandering 
fish . . . sometimes disappearing from certain 
regions for many years at a time.” Professor 
Baird always considered it, of all our coast fishes, 
one of the most destructive to marine life, a 
genuine wolverine of the sea. 
1 Po-mat'o-mus sal-ta'trix. 
The Bluefish swim in schools, ready to pounce 
upon anything edible that comes along. Once a 
cat-boat from which four of us were fishing sailed 
swiftly through a school. Within about five 
seconds, four fish struck in a rush that was prac- 
tically simultaneous, and amid flying spray and 
general excitement, four vigorous victims of 
misplaced confidence were hauled aboard. A 
fish which is so greedy that it kills more fish- 
prey than it can use surely is a good fish to pur- 
sue for sport. 
On our coast this fine fish is fairly common 
from Florida to northern Maine, ranging in size 
from 5 to 20 pounds. As a food fish it ranks on 
the bill of fare next to shad. Owing to its known 
voracity, it is debited with the annual destruc- 
tion of an enormous quantity of other fishes. 
On the hook it is savagely courageous, and fights 
to the last. 
Of all North American fishes, this species 
stands fifth in commercial value, being surpassed 
only by the Pacific salmon, cod, shad, and mul- 
let. In 1897 — the last year fully reported — the 
catch amounted to twenty million pounds, worth 
8643,705. 
The Spanish Mackerel 2 may stand as a 
typical representative of the Mackerel Family 
(Scombridae ) , in which we find the Common 
Mackerel of the North, the Kingfish of our 
tropical waters, and the Tuna. It is a large and 
showy fish, colored silvery white and dark metal- 
lic blue, and no cruise in Floridian or Cuban 
waters is complete without it. It is a favorite 
in all markets reached by it, and in flavor it is 
a fair rival of the bluefish. 
To every sportsman, the finest thing about 
this fish is the catching of it, on a one-hundred- 
foot line and a hook baited with that least ap- 
petizing of all baits this side of angle-worms — a 
white rag! Like the bluefish, the Spanish Mack- 
erel and kingfish both bite best when the sails 
are well filled, and the boat is making about 
twelve miles per hour. In 1902 the total catch 
for the United States amounted to 1,703,224 
pounds, valued at $112,342. 
It would require many pages to contain a really 
adequate life-sketch of this interesting fish, which 
ranges most erratically, in great schools — or in 
none at all — from the Gulf of Mexico to Block 
Island. It comes north only in the spring and 
2 Scom-be-rom'o-rus mac-u-la'tus. 
