Naples on the Gulf. 



57 



man, we were told, maintains the es- 

 tate and hotel at considerable pecuniary 

 loss, but we should judge him to be 

 content to do so, when he sees and min- 

 gles with the hosts of happy visitors 

 who so thoroughly appreciate and en- 

 joy their delightful surroundings. 



We were most comfortably housed in 

 a commodious cottage within a few 

 yards of the beach and the long pier 

 shown in the drawing. My work was 

 at once outlined and with it that of the 

 artist. Selecting Gordon's Pass, a nar- 

 row inlet three miles south of our cot- 

 tage, as the spot where the fish were to 

 be caught and painted, we procured a 

 boat, placed our working materials 

 aboard and rowed down the Black Bay 

 until we reached the mouth of the pass, 

 where we landed and under the shelter 

 of the palms, Mr. Petrie set his easel 

 and prepared his colors, while I, as the 

 fisherman, jointed my rod, adjusted reel 

 and water tackle, and stepping twenty 

 feet to the water-edge of the beach, 

 cast a phantom minnow on the incom- 

 ing tide. The result was almost in- 

 stantaneous and a salt water trout of 

 three pounds was beached. The ana- 

 tomical outlines, mathematically cor- 

 rect, of this specimen were transferred 

 to canvass in black crayon, supple- 

 mented afterwards by tracings with a 

 red crayon. One specimen sufficed for 

 this operation, which, when finished, left 

 on our hands a stiff and bleached fish, 

 but still edible. I then cast for another 

 of the same species, and as the black 

 spotted or salt water trout (a brother to 

 our northern weakfish or squeteaque) 

 were coming in freely to feed, I had no 

 difficulty in getting eight or ten speci- 

 mens in rapid succession for the use of 

 the artist, hence a perfect life-coloration 

 of this fish was obtained during the first 

 day. This outing of about six hours was 

 duplicated every day, except Sundays, 



for nearly seven weeks and during that 

 time I caught and Mr. Petrie painted 

 from live and gasping specimens, ten 

 portraits, one each of the salt water 

 trout, the mangrove snapper, the gray 

 snapper, the snook or sargeant fish, the 

 cavalle or jack, the pompano, the lady 

 or bony fish (a sister of the big tarpon) 

 the sheepshead, the silver mullet and 

 the gaff-topsail catfish. 



The season was ontoward for tarpon 

 up to the time we left (March 30th) as 

 the severe storms and low temperature 

 had retarded these fish from entering 

 the shallow and relatively brackish 

 waters to feed and disport. On one 

 day, however, at Gordon's Pass, when 

 casting in the hope of luring a cavalle, 

 my bait was taken by a large tarpon, 

 which, as is usual when they feel the 

 restraint of the line, cavorted upward 

 within twenty feet of where I stood, and 

 again leaped frantically twice into the 

 air, although the line was broken and 

 hung slack from the tip of the rod — a 

 clear case of buck or rather hook fever 

 on the part of the fish. On frequent 

 occasions, subsequent to this incident, 

 when the days were warm, with off- 

 shore winds, I saw many large tarpon 

 feeding on mullet near the mouth of the 

 pass, lazily rolling with half their bodies 

 out of the water, very much in the same 

 way as the porpoise feeds when he has 

 not to forage vigorously. At such times 

 we did not attempt to fish for tarpon, as 

 our greater need was for other and 

 smaller fish to paint, and we could not, 

 except under most fortunate conditions, 

 have killed a large tarpon from the 

 shore, had we chanced to hook one. 

 We, however, merely adjourned the 

 meeting to another day. 



The tackle used in catching the fish 

 named above, none of which weighed 

 over six pounds, consisted of a split 

 bamboo bait rod, length 8^ feet, weight 



