SNAPPERS AND RED-MOUTHS. 
77 
unmistakable evidence of rocks, and over-board went the lines. They 
scarcely touched bottom before the cry ‘Snapper!’ ‘ Snapper !’ was heard, 
and a crimson beauty graced our deck. 
“All were soon engaged, foreward, aft, starboard, and port. To feel the 
bite of a twenty-five pound Snapper at a depth of twelve fathoms causes a 
sensation never to be forgotten. As the line is pulled in and the fish is 
first seen at a depth of several fathoms, he looks like silver and not larger 
than one’s hand. As he comes nearer his tints deepen, as he struggles at 
the surface to escape, all his rich, brilliant colors are displayed, and when 
he reaches the deck every one exclaims, ‘What a beauty!’ For a few 
minutes the shouts resound from all sides, but a change soon occurs. 
Each man labors as if the number to be captured depended upon his in¬ 
dividual exertions, and no breath or time could be spared to cry ‘ Snap¬ 
per !’ or indulge in fisherman’s chaff. In less than two hours the whistle 
sounds ‘ Up lines ’ for we must cross the bar at a particular stage of the 
tide. The fish are biting rapidly, but our tired arms and blistered fingers 
induce us all quietly to obey the warning. 
“ On the home-trip our captures are counted;—not sea bass, porgies, and 
small fry, but fish worth counting,—and it is found that the party has cap¬ 
tured one grouper weighing thirty-five pounds, two of eighteen pounds, 
and two hundred and eight snappers averaging twenty-five pounds each,— 
the entire catch weighing two and one half tons.” 
One April day, some years ago, the writer and a party of friends were 
passengers on the little steamer which plied between Jacksonville and the 
mouth of the St. Johns. After leaving Mayport on the return trip, we 
were hailed by a party of men from a large sail-boat laying-to in the mid¬ 
dle of the river. We threw them a line, and they gave us a deck-load of 
stout fishes,—shapely, bright-eyed, and crimson. We learned that the 
boat had left Mayport on the previous afternoon, carrying six men, who 
had, in three hours, taken ninety Red Snappers, weighingin the aggregate 
over a ton, besides quantities of sea bass. Their brilliant hues were a 
great surprise to those of our party who were acquainted only with the 
neutral colors of the common northern market fishes, or perhaps had 
even seen the dull red color of the Snappers hanging in the markets. The 
ladies were eager to possess some of the “ lovely scales,” but soon learned 
one of the first lessons of ichthyology, that scales are always white, what¬ 
ever may be the color of the fish which wear them. 
The writer also learned a lesson in ichthyology, on the same occasion, 
The opportunity to examine so many specimens of this fish, gave him the 
clew to the fact that it was an undescribed species and led to its descrip¬ 
tions by Goode and Bean under the name Lutjanus Blackfordii. 
