140 
AMERICAN FISHES . 
are often eaten, but are not so much sought after; perhaps the cause of this 
is that they are liable to be infested by parasitic worms. A Drum of sixty 
pounds, taken at Wood’s Holl, Massachusetts, 1864, was completely rid¬ 
dled by nematode worms, neatly encysted among the layers of muscle. 
Some of them were two feet long, with heads larger than large buck-shot. 
In the Indian River, according to Mr. Clarke, Drum are taken with 
hooks and crab bait, and with cast-nets. In summer they are caught in 
the open ocean ; in the winter, in the bays and inlets. Four or five a day 
is considered good fishing luck. Tides do not affect the fishing. Their 
flesh is not greatly esteemed. They are sometimes salted, but are chiefly 
used for compost. “ In the Gulf of Mexico,” says Stearns, “ the Drum is 
often caught in seines and gill-nets, but is very rarely eaten, as the flesh is 
dry and tasteless.” 
I have often eaten the young fish in Florida. When very fresh, the 
flavor is sweet and agreeable, though the flesh is very soft. 
In the Carolinas, according to a statement of a correspondent, the roes 
are considered very delicious, and it is customary for the residents of the 
coast to salt and dry them and send them “ up country ” to their friends 
as a very acceptable present. 
North of Maryland the fish is of little economical importance. In the 
Chesapeake region, according to Uhler and Lugger, its flesh is much es¬ 
teemed, and its roe is a great delicacy ; considerable numbers are brought 
to the Baltimore markets in spring and fall. 
The scales of the Drum are extensively used in the manufacture of the 
sprays of flowers and other articles of fancy work which are sold, especially 
in Florida, under the name of “ fish scale jewelry.” They are large and 
silvery, and so hard that it is necessary to remove them from the fish with 
an axe or hatchet. 
The Drum was known to the Dutch colonists of New York as early as 
the middle of the seventeenth century, as is shown by references in Steen- 
dam’s poem “ In Praise of New Netherland,” already referred to. Its 
name was “Dartien,” while the bass was “ Twalft,” and the shad 
“ Elft ” — facts which give endorsement to the old tradition that the early 
colonists of New Netherland knew only ten kinds of fish and that when 
the shad came they called it the eleventh kind ( Elft ) the bass the twelfth 
( Twalft ) and the Drum the thirteenth (Dartien or Dertienen ). It is inter¬ 
esting to speculate as to which were the ten they first knew. The 
