392 
ORDERS OF FISHES— SPINY-FINNED FISHES 
attains sometimes a length of 3 feet, and a max- 
imum weight of 40 pounds. In the Gulf of 
Mexico, says Mr. Silas Stearns, they very seldom 
exceed 30 pounds weight, and the average is 8 or 
9 pounds. It happens, however, that one can 
spend months on the coast of Florida, and around 
Key West, without even once seeing a Red Snap- 
per reaching 25 pounds in weight. 
This fish prefers to live on a rocky bottom, in 
holes and gullies where all kinds of marine 
animals and fish are abundant. These gullies 
occur at a depth of from twelve to forty-five 
fathoms, and are most numerous in the north- 
ern border of the great level plain of sand which 
487 pounds of Red Snappers, worth to them 
$171,234. 
ODD FISHES OF THE SPINY -FINNED 
ORDER. 
The “Dolphin ” 1 of this Order is a fish, not 
a cetacean of the Class of Mammals; and its 
unfortunate popular name and sea-going habits 
cause between it and the true dolphins much 
confusion. 
This is the mid-ocean fish with a long, paddle- 
like body, a dorsal fin which reaches in one un- 
broken sweep from head to tail, and which pos- 
THE SWORDFISH. 
stretches out as the Gulf bottom from Cedar 
Keys toward the delta of the Mississippi. 
Within easy reach of Jacksonville, Florida, 
are fishing-banks so well populated by the Red 
Snapper, and other fishes, also, that excursions 
are made to them with great success. Dr. C. J. 
Kenworthy described for Dr. Goode (“Game 
Fishes of North America”) a day’s sport twelve 
miles off shore from Mayport, which for eighteen 
fishermen yielded 208 Red Snappers averaging 
25 pounds each. The bait used was bluefish, 
young shark or skip-jack. The only serious 
drawback to this fish is the fact that “it should 
always be boiled, or cooked in a chowder.” 
In 1897, the fishermen of Florida caught 5,314,- 
sesses when alive the wonderful iridescent colors 
which have tested the .descriptive powers of so 
many voyagers. 
This is the terror and destroyer of the flying 
fish. The “Dolphin” pursues it with tremen- 
dous speed and perseverance, often taking long 
leaps out of the water, until the victim is exhaust- 
ed, overtaken and devoured. 
The colors of the “Dolphin” are a mixture 
of all the colors of the solar spectrum, revealed 
with the metallic lustre and iridescence of the 
opal and the reticulated python. The fully 
grown fish is from 5 to 6 feet in length, and in 
contrast with the ordinary sailing-vessel diet 
1 Cor-y-phae'na hip-pu'rus. 
