While it is freely conceded that the highest branch of angling is casting the artificial fly on inland waters, and that the fullest measure of enjoyment is found only in the pursuit of the salmon, black-bass, trout, or grayling, it must be admitted that salt-water angling likewise has joys and pleasures that are, as Walton says, "Worthy the knowledge and practice of a wise man." And nowhere does salt-water angling offer more charms to the appreciative angler, or appeal to his sense of the curious and beautiful in nature, than along the keys off the southern extremity of the peninsula of Florida. The palm-crowned islets are laved by the waters of the Gulf Stream, as clear and bright and green as an emerald of the purest ray serene. Through their limpid depths are seen the lovely and varied tints of coral polyps, the graceful fronds of sea-feathers and sea-fans in gorgeous hues, and the curious and fantastic coralline caves, amid whose crannies and arches swim the most beautiful creations of the finny tribe, whose capture is at once a joy and a delight. THE RED SNAPPER (_Lutianus aya_) The red snapper was named _aya_ by Bloch, in 1790, that being the Portuguese name for it in Brazil, according to Marcgrave. It was described by Goode and Bean as a new species, in 1878, and named _blackfordi_, in honor of Eugene G. Blackford, of New York, in consideration of his eminent services and interest in fishculture. The red snapper, while not a game-fish, is one of the best known of Florida fishes, inasmuch as it is shipped all over the country as a good dinner fish, its fine, firm flesh bearing transportation well. It is especially abundant in the Gulf of Mexico, in water from ten to fifty fathoms deep, on the "snapper banks," from ten to fifty miles offshore, and thence south to Brazil, occasionally straying north on the Atlantic coast to Long Island. The depth of its body is a little more than a third of its length, being rather deep and compressed, the back elevated and regularly arched from the eye to the tail. The head is large, its length equal to the depth of the body, with a pointed snout, large mouth, and straight profile. The color of the red snapper is a uniform rose-red, paler on the throat; fins all red, the vertical fins bordered with dusky blue; there is a dark blotch under the front of the soft portion of the dorsal fin, except in the oldest and largest fish; the iris of the eye is scarlet. The red snapper, being a deep-water fish, is seldom found along the shores, and is of no importance to the angler. It is a bottom fish, feeding in company with the large groupers on small fishes and crustaceans. It grows to twenty or thirty pounds, but its usual size is from five to ten pounds. It spawns in summer.