52 Tarpon Fishing in Florida. 



undimmed by the opinion of this young and impatient scavenger, 

 and we soon commence operations. Our guides insist on our 

 fishing close to the bottom, so we tie on a lead sinker at the top 

 of the piano wire, and let out 20 to 30 yards of line, according to 

 the depth of the water. There are two boats out from the yacht, 

 and all six keep pretty close together. No tarpon have yet been 

 seen, and all the guides are doing much the same as Washington. 

 Our general policy is to row backwards and forwards over a strip 

 of water, 200 to 300 yards broad, being at the same time carried 

 up or down the pass by the tide. We then row back to the other 

 end and repeat the process. As the tarpon are such rapid movers, 

 no jealousy is occasioned by one boat fishing in front of another. 

 At this time, on a June morning in Florida, the cloud effects are 

 often very beautiful, and I am not much afraid of losing my rod 

 as I lay it down for a moment to take a snapshot. (I^)"^^' Soon 

 one of the boats has a fish which comes rushincj out of the 

 water, but now of course there is a convenient interval between 

 the time when he takes the bait 20 or 30 feet below the surface, 

 and his first leap. I snap him off as he emerges, and roll him up 

 quickly in the hope of getting a shot at his second appearance as 

 well. In this deep water, I saw during my ten days' stay, two 

 tarpon which did not show themselves for ten minutes, and when 

 they did, we were of course more than surprised to find 

 they were neither sharks nor jew fish. The rest leapt at once, 

 but this proportion of two out of about 1 50 is, I believe, above 

 the average. There is a curious little crackling noise which 

 sounds rather as if we were floating on a sea of soda water, and 



* See Frontispiece. 



