Tarpon Fishing- in L^londa. 41 



difficulty with the en<j^ine of the only available motor boat, and 

 that there were no other means of reachin;^ the Pass. The 

 strength of its position seemed to be fully understood b)- the 

 motor in question, which absolutely declined to start, I'^or the 

 first two or three hours it was coaxed and petted by its two 

 keepers, who spoke kindly of it and told us uf its \outh and how- 

 it played with the miles and tossed them behind it. They 

 explained that some rain had got down its exhaust pipe and so into 

 its cylinders. This had only to be worked out and then we should 

 see what a motor boat could do, and this motor boat in particular. 

 We waited to see. Enough work was put into those cylinders to 

 eject gallons of water, but the machine showed no more appre- 

 ciation of these exhausting eflbrts than it had of the kind words. 

 Next a little massage was proposed and we oiled it in every joint. 

 Talk of a jibbing horse, one is a hundred times as impotent 

 with a jibbing motor. The horse has certain well-known strong 

 likes and stronger dislikes, but a jibbing motor, well, — there is 

 no danger of being had up for cruelty to animids. I suggested 

 that the oil would have been more profitably used if it had been 

 burnt underneath it, and felt like trying the effect of a sledge 

 hammer. It was then five o'clock and our prospects of fishing 

 the next morning were rapid!)' disap{)earing. IJut here comes 

 the specialist, an irresistible magician, who had watched the 

 evolution of the explosion en'>"ine ever since the davs of the first 

 gas engine. He murmured the word, electricity. We told him 

 that we had ineffectually kindled many sparks of life ; but a little 

 dissection was deemed necessary. Hope springs ever in the 

 human breast, and we considered ourselves practically started. 



