FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 67 



casting from a boat on one or other of the lakes 

 have for their playground the banks of the Tuck- 

 aseegee, with little overhanging timber to impede 

 their casting, and along these they can walk or wade 

 for miles. In its bubbling waters the trout are 

 wilder and more dashing than in the still deeps of 

 the lakes, and, like most of the running waters, it 

 is also less fished. Toxaway is the most, and 

 Fairfield the least, fished of the lakes, each of which 

 has its flotilla of small boats. The Toxaway Inn 

 is the finest, as well as most easily accessible from 

 the railroad, but those who put sport before comfort 

 will give the preference to the remoter waters. 



The fishery laws in force in Carolina are not 

 sufficiently rigorous to guarantee lasting protection 

 for waters that may, in the near future, be very 

 popular, so the management has therefore codified 

 special regulations for observance by visitors, pro- 

 tecting the native brook trout from October i5th to 

 January ist. The exotic rainbow protects itself by 

 declining all flies and other baits while it is spawn- 

 ing. Again, whereas the State law limits only 

 brook trout to six inches, and makes no limit for 

 the rainbow, the Toxaway code forbids anyone to 

 retain either of less than seven inches. Lastly, the 

 day's bag is wisely limited to five trout from the 

 lakes and twenty from running water, a catch that 

 should satisfy the most skilful and all but the most 

 greedy. 



Besides these trout, black bass and ouananiche, 

 or land-locked salmon, will, ere long, be available in 

 those waters. Black bass, than which few sporting 

 fish are held in higher esteem in America, are, in 

 the experience of fish-culturists, even more delicate 



