182 Recreations of a Sportsman 



up an island or sand-bank. It is so low that 

 when I landed the first thing I observed was 

 driftwood at the very gate of the little inn, and 

 I was told that the storm which devastated Gal- 

 veston had been a menace to them. The old 

 Tarpon Club, a mile opposite, on another island, 

 was completely surrounded at this time by a 

 wild and menacing sea, and it is said that a 

 wealthy but trapped angler telephoned the Life 

 Saving Station that there was five thousand 

 dollars waiting for any one who would take him 

 off; but they did not go. 



" The inn at Tarpon is not much to look at, 

 but it is a hospitable place and about the only 

 building of any size or value in the vicinity. 

 Owing to the heat there is a patio, or gallery, 

 as they call it, in the centre where the anglers 

 sit and talk. When a man hooks a tarpon here 

 he releases the fish, but takes a scale, a splendid 

 silver-like object, and nails it onto the wall of 

 the inn, after writing upon it his name and the 

 length of the catch. This has been going on 

 for years, and as a result, the wall is covered, 

 or was when I saw it, with a blaze of scales, a 

 radiant hall of fame which not merely tells of 

 the glory of the catch, but that the anglers, to a 

 man, release their catch." 



The glow of the fire as the wind roared down 

 the chimney illumined a row of books on the 

 broad mantel over which hung a number of old 



