THE BOOK OF THE TARPON 



at the result and said as he stepped cautiously 

 aboard: "I don't mind being drowned in clean 

 water, but I hate being smothered in mud." 



Then he pulled off his cap and bailed with it, 

 while the captain and I paddled with sticks. I 

 left my rod on the bank, fearing that the attempt 

 to catch fish from that crazy craft would result 

 in the fish getting us. Moccasins guarded the 

 borders of the pond and one key that we passed 

 was worthy the name of Golgotha, for in a single 

 season two hunters had piled upon it the skulls 

 of a thousand alligators together with their 

 bodies, and the whitened bones yet remained in 

 heaps. In shallow coves we found numbers of ill- 

 odored gar and on the margin of the pond the 

 tracks of a deer which caused us to wonder if the 

 creature had come there to eat the water. As we 

 approached a thicket near the end of the pond a 

 big, black creature sprang out of it with a loud 

 "wouf !" and shambled swiftly away through a 

 tangle where a man would have found it difficult 

 to crawl. 



"That must be the bear the lake's named for," 

 said the captain. "I shot at him last time I was 

 here. I wish I'd had my rifle with me to-day." 



196 



