Tarpon Fishing in Florida. 47 



about the matter. We were now some 2CX3 yards from the inside 

 or eastern shore of the isldiul which forms the north shore of 

 the pass. On this ishind are three buildinjTs, a small (luarantiiu; 

 stati(^n, a h"ghthouse and a wooden cottaore belon^'in^" to the 

 assistant hj^hthouseman. These houses were objects of no small 

 interest to us. as they provided us with our fresh water, which 

 they collected in tanks from their roofs. The lighthouseman too 

 was interesting. An educated man who had not for many years 

 been ground in the social mill. He told me he saw almost as 

 little of his assistant as of anyone else. It was not well to become 

 too familiar with one's subordinates. He said that at first he used 

 to read four or tive books a day, but that now he scarcely read at 

 all. He had reached a state where the society of his fellows was no 

 longer a necessity to him, but who can tell how painful was 

 the path by which he travelled there. Unlike most Americans he 

 diverted himself with no golden dreams of fortune, and it would 

 be a contradiction to suppose that a man for whom nature was 

 sufficient, should wish for power to inlluence the lives of his 

 fellows ; but this may have resulted from a knowledge of the 

 hopelessness of the struggle. Anyhow from him I learnt of his 

 welcome and unwelcome guests, the three different sorts of turtles 

 the logger head, sometimes weighing 300 pounds, the green back, 

 and the snapper which crawled up the shore at night and laid 

 their eggs in the sand in May and June ; and the rattlesnakes 

 which swam across from Florida and the adjacent islands. 



To return to our tarjion ; there are four different kinds of 

 fishing on the west coast of h'lorida. First, there is the still 

 fishing in the river off Fort Myers. This did not sound to me 



