CHAPTER XI 
Tarpon-fishing—Fort Myers—Captiva and Boca Grande Passes 
—A Logger-head Turtle—Aransas Pass—Mocking-bird. 
Bright before it beat the water, 
Beat the clear and shining water, 
Beat the shining Big-Sea-water.—LoneFrettow. 
NCE more on my way abroad —this 
time to Florida on a tarpon- fishing 
expedition. I had never been to the 
West Indies, so decided on that route via 
Barbados and Jamaica, and spent a few weeks 
seeing the sights, eventually crossing over to 
America, landing at Tampa, thence by train 
to Punta Gorda. I had no rods or tackle with 
which to try conclusions with the tarpon, and 
was advised to telegraph to Von Holf, in New 
York, for two rods, two multiplying reels, and 
the twenty-two-thread flax lines suitable. These, 
together with a supply of hooks and piano-wire 
traces, eventually came to hand. 
In 1897 the number of fishermen who had 
found out the charms of this fishing was but 
small. I went by the small river steamer to a 
place called Fort Myers, and put up at the local 
hotel, next day hunting for a guide and fisher- 
man, whom I found in one Bartley, the owner 
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