Part I 

 SEA FISHING IN THE BOCAS ISLANDS 



Here by these crystal pools you may 

 Preserve a conscience clear as they; 

 And when by sullen thoughts you find 

 Your harassed not busied mind 

 In sable melancholy clad, 

 Distempered, serious, turning sad; 

 Hence fetch your cure, cast in your bait; 

 All anxious cares and thoughts will straight 

 Fly with such speed, they'll seem to be 

 Possesst with the hydrophobic; 

 The water's calmness in your breast, 

 And smoothness on your brow shall rest. 



Thomas Weaver. 



A S this article is written especially for sporting visitors, 

 ZA it deals chiefly with fishing in the vicinity of the 

 -* '■Bocas, as that is the only portion of Trinidad whereat 

 suitable accommodation in the shape of residences, boats and 

 boatmen, can be easily obtained. The Bocas Islands are 

 four in number, and all of them possess houses, generally 

 situated on the shores of small bays or inlets of their own. 

 These houses are suitably furnished, and can be hired by the 

 week, fortnight, or month, at a monthly rental ranging from 

 $25 to $50 (roughly speaking ;^5 to ;^io.) Pair-oared boats 

 can be hired from $10 to $12 per month (£2 to ;^2.io), while 

 a small fishing boat with a pair of sculls will cost from $5 

 to $7 (;^i to ;^i . 10) . Boatmen well versed in all the tricks of 

 tides and currents, which are very strong on occasions at the 

 Bocas, can be obtained at 40 cents (is. 8d.) per diem with 

 food, or 48 cents (2s.) without rations, but visitors will find 

 it more to the interest of sport to feed them, as otherwise 

 they may, when required for the boat, say they have to cook 

 their food. Visitors who lease one of these houses have to 



