CHAPTER XIX 

 THE FINEST SPORT IN THE WORLD 



I HAVE saved the last chapter for a serious 

 talk. I want to weigh the sport of tar- 

 pon fishing against anything else of its 

 kind and to hold the scales as evenly as could the 

 blind goddess herself. I have studied the lives 

 and the writings of worthy fishermen of great re- 

 pute, from Simon Peter to Izaak Walton and 

 from Izaak Walton to Charles F. Holder, vain- 

 ly seeking for a type in the fish line that it 

 wouldn't be cruelty to infants to compare with 

 the Silver King. 



My mountain home is on a trout stream, fa- 

 mous among artists of the fly for three-score 

 years. Rod in hand, with perennial joy, I have 

 traced its course for a generation. But it is the 

 delight in Nature unspoiled, her rocks and 

 ravines, sparkling waters and shaded dells, or as 



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