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fen Cents a Copy. § 

{ Volume I, Nomber #6, 
) 103 Fulton Street. 


J For Forest and Stream, 
AURORA BOREALIS. 
fe Ge, 
4S BEEN BY A SALMON FISHING PARTY AT LABRADOR, JUU.¥ 1873. 
IDNIGHT over stream and shore! 
Midnight over Labrador! 
Midnight o’er our log hut home, 
O’er the breaker’s curling foam. 
Midnight on the drifting cloud, 
And the mountain's mighty shroud; 
Midnight in the solitude 
Of the unknown savage wood. 
Midnight deep, profound and still, 
Over swamp and shore and hill. 
4 

Tis a midnight fair to see; 
Wondrous in sublimity; 
Lingering at our cabin door, 
Fast beside the river shore. 
Dazzled is the gazer’s eye, 
With the pomp that fires the sky. 
Clouds are flying in m'ad chase, 
O’er the moon’s celestial face; 
In the blue concave of air, 
Stars, like diamonds, flash and glare;* 
While with evanescent glow, 
Springs aloft the Lunar bow. 
See, like arch triumphal high, 
How it soareth up the sky 
See, like heavenly rainbow bent, 
How its gorgeous columns clirb, 
With majesty sublime: 
Now a grander pomp is there, 
Flaming thro’ the midnight air, 
Blazing, flashing, shooting far, 
Lovlier than moon or star. 
See, the Auroral Boreal show 
Fills the universe with glow, 
From the horizon to the pole, 
See the conflagration roll. 
Shooting flames and sparks ascend; 
All the hues of rainbows blend. 
Amber, amethyst and gold, 
Twisted,in one gorgeous fold, 
Gilding with supernal glow, 
Sailing cloud and lunar bow. 
Gazing on the skies’ parade, 
How all earthly splendors fade! 
I. McLELLAN, 
Cie Hishes of East Hlarida. 
FROM NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 


HAD always supposed that the fishes of the northern 
coasts were of better quality than those of southern 
waters, but an experience of three winters on the east coast 
_ of Florida has convinced me of my error. In a day’s fish- 
ing at Mosquito Inlet, on the Indian River, we often touk 
six or eight species of edible fish, all of which were quite 
equal to those of the North. They are also very abund- 
ant, and not being much pursued are easily caught. This 
is particularly the case in the Indian River, where the ang- 
ler might say— 
“They are so unacquainted with man, 
Their tameness is shocking to me.”” 
The Indian River country is mostly wilderness, and can 
only be fished and hunted by camping out, which, how- 
ever, ina Florida winter, is delightful, the weather being 
much like the finest October days in the northern States. 
At New Smyrna, near the Mosquito Inlet, there is also good 
fishing, and there is an excellent hotel, kept by E. K. 
Dowd, (the Ocean House) mostly frequented by anglers and 
hunters from the North. Here you are near the fishing 
grounds, and behind the house stretches away to the south 
an immense forest and swamp, containing bears, panthers, 
deer, wild cattle, turkeys, quails, squirrels, and all kinds 
of ducks and water fowl. The house is clean, the table 
very good, the host and hostess obliging and friendly, and 
the charges moderate—about $14 per week. The route is 
as follows:—From Savannah, by rail, to Jacksonville, ten 
or twelve hours; fare, $8. From Jacksonville to Enter- 
prise, on the St. John, per steamer in two days; two hun- 
nn A se Fr eee 
dred miles; fare, $9. At Enterprise you hire a wagon to 
take you through the pine woods thirty or forty miles to 
New Smyrna; time, twelve hours; perhaps more if the 
swamps are full of water; fare, $7. You can employ a 
day or two at Enterprise (Brock House) in fishing for black 
bass (here called trout) in Lake Munroe, or in hunting deer 
or wild turkeys in the woods. The expenses of a trip to 
Florida will be from $100 to $150 per month, according to 
the habits of the traveller. 
During parts of three winters spent in this region I made 
some notes of the food and game fishes, from which f have 
prepared the following sketches :— 
SHEEPSHEAD, (Sa7'gus ovis). —DEKAY. 
This is one of the most abundant species, as well as one 
of the most valuable as food. Though much more numer- 
ous than on the coasts of the middle States, they are of 
smaller size, averaging at Mosquito Inlet and in the Indian 
River about three pounds’ ~ six pound fish is large, and 
a seven pound one is yYare. The baits generally used are 
clams (better boiled, being tougher), crabs, fiddlers, and 
conchs. The latter bait is yery tough, well resists the 
strong teeth of the sheepshead, but is, I think, less attrac- 
tive than the others. We find the best fishing usually in 
the channels which run along the banks, upon which is a 
thick grove of mangrove bushes; the roots of these are in 
the water, and are covered with barnacles, which attract 
the sheepshead, From half flood to high water they usually 
bite most eagerly, though here, as elsewhere, there some 
times comes a day on which fish do not feed—affected 
probably by the wind or weather. 
Tam disposed to believe, with Norris, that the sheeps- 
head found on the northern coast are the surplus produc- 
In April, the sheepshead 
on the coast of Florida become heavy with spawn, and lose 
tion of more southern waters. 
We often 
Most 
their fine flavor. I think they spawn in May. 
take them quite small, only a few ounces in weight. 
fishermen use a hand line, with two hooks resting on the 
bottom, but anglers find more sport in the use of rod ande 
reel. A four pound sheepshead will make a strong fight, 
and a pair of them will try the angler’s skill t0 save both. 
Owing to the hard pavement of enamelied teeth in the 
mouth, it is difficult to hook this fish, and when hooked 
his jaws are so strong that few hooks can resist their 
power. After trying many kinds I have found but two 
that I could depend upon. One is the hook used at New- 
port for tautog, and the other is figured in Norris’ book 
under the name of the Virginia hook. It is the best of the 
two, having a sharp cutting edge to the barb, which gives 
a better penetration. Sinkers of different weights are re- 
quired to suit the force of the tide at different times, the 
sheepshead being a bottom fish. Two, four, and six ounces 
will be found sufficient. We usually averaged a dozen fish 
to a line in one tide, even when half a dozen persons were 
fishing from the boat, most of whom were unskilled. I 
have taken twenty-five sheepshead in a tide to my own 
rod, and I have known two anglers to kill a hundied ina 
day. We used generally to fill a two bushel bag, hanging 
over the boait’s side in the water, so as to bring the fish 
home alive, and then put them inacar anchored in the 
creek in front of the hotel. 
REDFISH, OF CHANNEL BASs, (Corvina ocellata),—CUVIER. 
This is a very common and numerous species on the Flor- 
ida coasts, and is a fish much resembling in habits its con- 
gener, the striped bass of more northern waters. It is 
taken with similar baits, such as shrimp, crab, or a piece of. 
mullet; it fights long and hard on the hook, and in the 
proper season is an excellent table fish, boiled, cut in steaks, 
and broiled, or even fried. JI consider it after the month 
of March to be equal to the striped bass. In the fall and 
winter the redfish is lean and without flavogy but improves 
in March, and in January it is the best of the coast fishes, 
as well as the most abundant, At that season i sin 
the river mouths and sounds, and can be taken ost 
any bait. It is also found of large size in the st n the 
sea-beaches, and can be readily taken by casting a baited 
hook with a hand line from the shore. 
Norris represents the redfish as ‘‘stringy, and lacking fla- 
















































vor,” while Herbert calls it excellent. Both are right, 
since its quality varies with the season. Mr. Norris, quot- 
ing Holbrook, describes the redfish as of a beautiful sil- 
very color, and iridiscent when taken from the water, add- 
ing that in the Gulf it is invariably red. I have found 
that specimens under seven or eight pounds weight have 
the back of a steel blue, sides golden, and belly white— 
the larger fish are of a brilliant golden red on back and 
sides. All have the black spot near the tail, from which 
the specific name is derived. Sometimes there are two or 
more spots. The cut in Norris’ book gives a correct figure 
of the redfish, or channel bass. It comes into the rivers 
with the tide, and is best taken in the channels near the 
shore at half flood. As in sheepshead fishing, most per- 
sons use the hand line, with the bait on the bottom, but I 
have found better sport with a bass rod and reel to hold 
sixty or seventy yards of line, using a float to keep my bait 
within three feet of the bottom. The same hook as for 
striped bass; this fish has a tough, but not very bony 
mouth, and is easily hooked and held. In March and April 
we get them in the rivers and inlets of five to ten pounds 
weight; later in the season of larger size, say from fifteen 
to thirty pounds. My largest was taken by trolling with a 
hand line from a boat in the Indian River, and weighed 
twenty-five pounds. I haye known a dozen to be taken by 
one rod in the spring, averaging eight pounds, but in sum- 
mer a wagon load could be hauled out of the surf with a 
hand line almost anywhere along the coast from Mosquito 
Inlet to the Indian River. 
Satt Water Trout, (Otolitus Carolinensis).—Cuvimr 
This belongs to the same genus as the weakfish, or sque- 
teague of the Middle States (0. regalis), differing chiefly in 
this, that the southern species has rows of black spots on 
the back, like the lake trout of the Adirondacks, which it 
much resembles in figure. It is, however, not a salmozx, 
but rather allied to the perches of the order Ctenoid, of 
Agassiz. Our southern species is not much esteemed as 
food, becoming soft and flavorless soon after capture. It 
is a game fish, and affords good sport to the rod fisher; a 
very handsome and lively fish, from two to ten pounds in 
weight, andis taken usually with mullet bait. It is of 
very rapacious habits, and on a still night in spring and 
summer the snapping of their jaws may be distinctly heard 
as they chase the mullets and small fry in the creeks. Hol- 
brook gives a good figure of this species. 
TuE Drum, (Pogonias cromis).—Cuvier. 
HOLBROOK. 
There seem to be two species on the southern coast. 
Pogonias cromis is the black drum, the larger and coarser, 
sometimes weighing fifty or sixty pounds. P. fasciatus, the 
striped drum, of ten or twelve pounds, is the better fish. 
They appear at Mosquito Inlet about April, and spawn, I 
think at that season, The roe of the drum, salted, is a fa- 
vorite dish on the coast, and was formerly exported in 
large quantities to Cuba. In Charleston, Savannah, and 
St. Augustine the drum is the common dinner fish when in 
season, though I think it much inferior to the sheepshead 
or the redfish. It is taken in the same way as its cousin, 
i e sheepshead, and with the same bait, and behaves in the 
/ same way when hooked, though fromits greater size and 
I strength its capture is more difficult. This fish derives its 
‘name from its habit of emitting a hollow, drumming noise, 
principally, I think, in the spawning season. This sound, 
like the drumming of the partridge, is difficult to trace, as 
it appears to diffuse itself in space. 
(P. fasciatus), 

THE Wuirine, Bars, or Kinerisy, (Uindrina nebulosa),— 
ere STORER. 
The whiting is considered one of the best of the south- 
ern fishes, and is prized higher by the natives than even the 
sheepshead; perhaps because it is a scarcer fish. We sel- 
dom get more than six or eight of them in a tide. The 
flesh is both rich and delicate, and the average weight 
about a pound; but its résistance is greater than would be 
expected from the size of the fish. They are taken in 
rather deep water on the bottom, with either clam, crab, or 
mullet bait. The figure in Norris’ book is accurate, 
