488 MODERN SEA FISHING 



south of that vast Republic. From New York one travels for 

 little more than a day and a half to Jacksonville, the chief 

 town of this great, straggling, unpopulated State. 



We drove to the railway station in New York in a sleigh ; 

 next day we left the train at- Jacksonville, and found our- 

 selves in a climate exactly similar to that of Cairo at the 

 beginning of March. Journeying is pleasant in America. 

 There may be delays ; one may be ' side-tracked ' for three or 

 four hours or more ; the speed in the remoter parts of the 

 country is not such as a Briton, or the man of the Eastern 

 States, is accustomed to ; but the people who come and 

 go from town to town are amusing and delightful and, 

 like all provincials, wonderfully inquisitive. They do not 

 seem to be able to understand that there is a kind of man 

 who will go on long journeys with any other object than that 

 of money-making, and regard the sportsman as a good deal of 

 a fool. 



I had first been led to think of tarpon fishing by occasional 

 references in the ' Field ' and the ' Fishing Gazette,' and on 

 seeking for information Mr. Marston referred me to one of 

 the best- known American anglers, Mr. A. N. Cheney, Glens 

 Fall, N.Y. 



There are so many kinds of fishing in the United States ; 

 the country, or rather the aggregation of counties, is so 

 enormous, that it was not unnatural to find that Mr. Cheney 

 himself had never made an expedition in search of what can 

 unhesitatingly be claimed as the king of game fish, salmon 

 not excepted. Mr. Cheney, however, supplied me with an 

 amount of information that enabled me to go to Florida and 

 back with as much ease and considerably more comfort than 

 would be experienced in a trip to the Black Forest. 



First let me ask and answer the question, What is the 

 tarpon ? According to the United States Fish Commission 



