V OUR LIFE ASHORE AND AFLOAT 49 



the fireflies were splendid, floating through the rainfall. Those 



verandahs were certainly a fipe institution when you wanted 



to get away to write, read, or meditate. I may 



Life Ashore, 

 state, too, that on the 8th April Mr. Holloway, 



a noted tarpon fisher, caught three tarpon, one weighing 

 163 lbs. On that day I saw another angler losing a tarpon 

 after it had towed his boat about a mile and a half, and 

 jumped out of water several times. The catastrophe occurred 

 quite close to my boat, and the angler had lost three pre- 

 viously on the same day. In the morning I was startled 

 while reading by the noise of wings, and looking up saw 

 some two hundred ducks within shot. 



At Fort Myers, just where the Diary on a preceding page 

 is interrupted, a break occurred in our method of living. We 

 left the inn and took up our quarters on board an auxiliary 

 naphtha yacht, named The Tarpon, on the nth April. I 

 chartered her for 22 dollars a day, and put in her about five 

 pounds' worth of naphtha, which is very cheap there. Besides 

 this the crew have to be provided with food. The reader 

 may see what she was in appearance by the illustration. 



As to the living ashore, perhaps the fairest opinion I 



can offer is that it might be better and it might be worse. 



E 



