THE TARPON SWAMPS US 



the tarpon played me for a few minutes after 

 which he sailed away with half of my line as a 

 trophy. 



Before running down the coast we went back 

 to the Storter store in search of a substitute for 

 the broken rod. The captain said he could make 

 a better rod than the old one out of anything, 

 from a wagon tongue to a flag pole. We bought 

 a heavy hickory hoe handle, which looked un- 

 breakable, and furnished it with extra fittings 

 which I had on hand. As we sailed down the 

 coast I mended the broken rod and we entered 

 on the new campaign with three heavy tarpon 

 rods in commission. 



We were cruising in the land of the crusta- 

 cean. There were reefs of oysters along the 

 coast. Oyster bars guarded the mouths of the 

 rivers and great bunches of the bivalves clung 

 like fruit to the branches of the trees. Beneath 

 us was one vast clam bed and dropping our an- 

 chor we drove poles in the mud down which we 

 climbed and to which we clung with one hand 

 while digging clams out of the mud with the 

 other. We gathered a hundred or more, as many 

 as the most sanguine of us believed we could eat. 



143 



