84 THE ENGLISH ANGLER IN FLORIDA viii 



near Myers, and that the identical fish was caught within 

 four-and-twenty hours in a different river seventy miles dis- 

 tant. These and similar stories never lose in the telling, and 

 they are always well told and most diverting. 



Personally I can vouch for a very large saw-fish. It was 

 the very biggest specimen which I have seen caught with 



A Hujre ^°^ ^^^ ^^"^» ^^^ ^ ^^^ ^^*^ privilege of assist- 

 Saw-Fish. Jng in its capture. The photograph was happily 

 very successful. 



We were out one day gorge-fishing for tarpon, and Mr. 

 Vom Hofe was anchored not far from my own boat. I 

 happened to look up just as he had hooked a fish ; that it was 

 no small fry was soon evident. It was running deep down, 

 and there was no leaping in the air or breaking the surface. 

 It towed the boat about for nearly an hour and a half, and I 

 set off to render any assistance that I might. The boatmen 

 had decided, from the working of the game, that it was a saw- 

 fish, and I was able to photograph some of the closing scenes. 

 I put a man on board Mr. Vom Hofe's boat, and all in good 

 time the monster was brought alongside and secured by the 

 adroit slipping of a noose over the ugly saw, which was most 

 conveniently fashioned by nature for such an operation. A 



