ulled up nothing but bare hooks. Twice was I thus robbed by the small
fish which swarmed about us, and which get the bait before the larger
ones can reach it; but the third time I felt a heavy downward tug, and
found myself fast to a strong fish, which fought hard to keep at the
bottom, and made short but furious rushes here and there, so that I
had to give him line. In a few minutes he tired himself by his own
efforts, and I wound him up toward the surface, but no sooner did he
approach daylight than he surged downward again. Five minutes' play
of this sort exhausted him, and I lifted on board a five-pound
sheepshead, the same thick-set, arched-backed fish, with his six dusky
bars on a silvery ground, which we buy in Fulton market at half a
dollar the pound, and which the wise call _Sargus ovis_. In the New
York waters it is a scarce fish, but runs larger than on the Southern
coast, sometimes up to ten or twelve pounds. Here they do not average
more than four pounds, a seven-pounder being rare. I agree in opinion
with Norris, whose theory is that those found on the coasts of
the Middle states are the surplus population of more Southern
waters--perhaps the magnificoes of their tribe, who, like the rich
planters in the good old times, like to amuse themselves at Cape May
or Long Branch.

But to return to our muttons. Here Captain Herbert pulled up a
handsome silvery fish of about a pound weight.

"A whiting!" cried Pecetti, "and the best fish in the river." Next
I hooked a couple of sheepshead, but lost one by the breaking of a
hook--a common accident, the jaws of this fish being very powerful.
Herbert now got hold of a big one, which played beautifully on his
elastic rod, and gave him a long fight and plenty of reel music, but
was finally saved, a six-pound sheepshead.

Pecetti, who had waited on us attentively, baiting our hooks and
taking off our fish (a service of some danger to a tyro, as the
sheepshead is armed with sharp spines), had a hook baited with
mullet away astern of the boat. This line was now straightened out
by something heavy, which he pulled in, hand over hand, and lifted on
board a handsome fish, near two feet long, with darkly mottled sides
and shaped like a cod-fish. "That's a nice grouper," said he--"ten
pound, I think." This is a percoid, _Serranus nigritus_ of Holbrook,
and one of the very best table-fishes of these waters.

We took six or eight more sheepshead, and the captain caught a
hand