17 -NOTES ON FISHES COLLECTED IN FLORIDA IN 1892. 
By Dr. JAMES A. HENSHALL. 
During tlie montlis of January, February, aud March, 1892, the writer was 
engaged in collecting a series of the salt-water lisbes of Florida for use in preparing 
the exhibit of the U. S. Fish Commission at the World’s Columbian Exposition, 
Chicago, 1893. 
Most of the fishes were procured from the fishermen at Tampa and Key West. 
As it was intended to make gelatin casts of those obtained, only adult examples 
were collected, comprising the larger forms, especially those known as food-fishes; 
consequently such small species as cypriuodonts, sardines, anchovies, silv^ersides, etc., 
were not embraced in the collection. 
Each fish was taken fresh from the water, frozen in a refrigerator, and then care- 
fully wrapped in soft, white paper, and sewed up in cheese cloth. They were then 
packed in ice and shipped to Washington by express, where they arrived in excellent 
condition. Those shipped from Kej'' W est were re-iced en route at Port Tampa. 
Casts were made of most of the species, which were painted in oil from fresh 
examples or color sketches and exhibited at the World’s Fair, where they were A’ery 
much admired aud presented so lifelike an appearance that most visitors mistook 
them for real fishes. 
The fishing in the vicinity of Tampa is all done by means of haul seines on the 
sandy beaches of the islands and bays of the mainland. The first pound net on. the 
west coast of Florida wars put in operation in Sarasota Bay during my visit, from 
which 1 secured many fine specimens. 
The coralline formation of the Florida keys and reefs renders the use of seines 
and nets impossible, so that all of the market fishing at Key W^est is done with hook 
aud line. Most of the fish are bottom fish, and are caught in the channels between 
the keys, the fleet of small smacks (known as “smackees”) going out every morning 
and returning in the afternoon. The flsh, consisting of grunts, snappers, groupers, 
jiorgies, etc., are brought to market alive in the wells of the smackees. The principal 
and favorite bait is the sea crawfish {Palinurus sps.), but such small fry as pilchards, 
sardines, anchovies, etc., are also used. 
A fleet of larger smacks, mostly schooner-rigged, engage in trolling along the 
keys and reefs for the larger surface-feeding fishes, as kingfish, Spanish mackerel^ 
jacks, albicore, bonito, etc. The troll used is usually a piece of bacon rind cut in the 
semblance of a flsli. The catch is taken to market fresh, but not alive, as the severe 
ordeal of being hooked and hauled iu while under sail is usually sufficieut to cause 
the death of the fish in a short time. They are, therefore, rapped on tlie head and 
killed outright as soon as they are brought aboard. 
F. C. 13. 1891 U 
209 
