50 DEVIL FISHING. 



worn away, and neither the capture nor the de- 

 scription can be invested with their former interest. 

 I can no longer realize the excited feelings with 

 which I first surrendered myself to this manly 

 sport against an adversary so rarely captured, so 

 little known, and endued, as every one believed, 

 with a strength that made all intermeddling with 

 him a matter of imminent peril. That strength 

 has been mastered and that peril so accurately 

 measured and guarded against, that the sport, as 

 now pursued, may be said to offer nothing more 

 than a fair field of exercise, to such of our adven- 

 turous youth as contemplate a life of action ! But, 

 to return I can neither recall the enthusiasm of 

 my first feelings, nor hope to impart it; and I 

 shall, therefore, confine myself to a simple narra- 

 tive of one of my recent " days." 



On the 15th of July, 1843, 1 set out from Bay 

 Point on a cruise, in a good six-oared boat, manned 

 by five oarsmen, having T. R., a cadet from West 

 Point, and his cousin, a youth of fifteen, on board 

 with me. E. B. M. and H. K., Esqrs., were in 

 another boat. We stretched across, with a north- 

 east wind, for Hilton Head, traversing that portion 

 of the inlet which, on former occasions, I had re- 

 marked as constituting their favorite feeding, or 

 sporting ground. "We passed onward as far as Mrs. 



