FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 53 



association that I had never dreamt could have 

 lingered in a mind occupied in making and unmak- 

 ing history. Shooting and fishing we talked, rifles, 

 brook trout, sea-fishing, and similar light topics. 

 No doubt, most of Mr Roosevelt's visitors engage 

 him on more serious subjects, but I doubt whether 

 he can always be grateful for it. He inquired 

 cordially after several sportsmen at home, after 

 Lord Desborough, whom he had known as "Willie 

 Grenfell," a quarter of a century earlier in the 

 Rockies, and after F. C. Selous, for whom he 

 evidently entertains the warmest admiration. He 

 confessed, albeit no enthusiastic fisherman, a pre- 

 ference for the wild brook trout, regarding the 

 larger rainbow as a less sporting fish, and he told 

 me of a most interesting case of brook trout, usually 

 puny fish, exceeding their average dimensions some- 

 where (if I remember right) in the State of Maine, 

 owing to natural conditions that fish-culturists had 

 hitherto failed to diagnose. Another subject that 

 interested him was the complete lack of woodcraft 

 in the average English sportsman out from home, as 

 contrasted with the intuitive rough-and-ready lore 

 that enables the American to find his way out of 

 the deepest jungle, and to ward off starvation with 

 the most slender resources. I suggested that our 

 sport at home, if less educational in these elementary 

 virtues, is at least better suited to the requirements 

 of busy men in need of brief relaxation from the 

 cares of office or from the grinding of the mill. 

 If we lack the charm of virgin Nature, we also get 

 more sport with preserved birds, though big game 

 shooting (unless the semi-artificial sport of deer 

 " forests " be included under that head) is, for 



