16 TROPICAL TROLLING. 



about a thousand miles from Xew York, that all merchandise is sent 

 by parcels post, and that steamers carrying parcels post packages 

 leave New York only once in two weeks or so. Therefore, it must 

 take more than a month to get this reel north, repaired and back to 

 me, and I was in fact deprived of its use for nearly six weeks. 



As a substitute for bait I had bought a number of the 

 "Sam" spoons of large size, a spoon being serviceable and effect- 

 ive whenever the wind is reasonably strong and the motion of the 

 boat rapid, and being in some ways preferable to bait, because it 

 is not cut by the teeth of a fish striking and consequently does not 

 have to be hauled in and renewed. The "Sam" was more lively 

 and active in the water than any spoon I have ever seen, but developed 

 three very grave faults. First ; they tarnished so badly that, after a 

 few hours' use, one had to scrub them with specially made scouring 

 cloths for fifteen or twenty minutes in order to get them decently 

 bright. Second ; they were fitted with the "Van Meek'' hook, 

 which has an incurved point. Whether on account of this or 

 some other reason they did not fasten fish well, and I got a large num- 

 ber of strikes on these spoons without hooking the fish. Third ; the 

 ring of the hook, which fastened into a strong loop of metal on the 

 spoon, proved altogether too weak. The hooks wore away very 

 rapidly and, on at least two occasions, very heavy fish were lost through 

 the breaking of hooks at this point. 



Becoming disgusted with the unsatisfactory results of trolling, 

 bottom fishing was tried. Fish seemed to be unusually scarce and, 

 what I had never known before, sharks were unusually plenty. Going 

 out for a day, after taking two or three fish one was< likely to 

 have his hooks bitten oft" by a shark, and could not escape these 

 miserable brutes, either because they followed when ground was 

 changed or because they were so numerous that there was always a 

 new one handy. Bottom fishing, therefore, was in every way a failure 

 and not worth the trouble it cost. 



On one particular day T invited three ladies to go out with my 

 wife and myself, expecting to fish for a while and then sail up to 

 the end of the island, land, eat our luncheon there, and have a pleasant 

 sail back. The wind became so light that it took at least two hours 

 to get to the fishing ground. Finally we got our lines down and took 

 one or two porgies, when the usual shark arrived. I was using my 

 tarpon rod and a twenty-four thread line with comparatively small 

 hooks. After biting off one or two of other baits, the shark came to 



