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. LONGFELLOW. 



ONCE 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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