FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 89 



as sharks and jewfish. The brute force is expended 

 in tiring out a fish of great strength and resourceful- 

 ness, which, in spite of the tackle, might baffle a 

 weak arm. You do not want to be a Sandow, but 

 strategy is not in it with savagery, and he kills 

 most fish who gets each quickest to the beach. 

 Some of my American friends will perhaps con- 

 demn what may seem to them a perverted view of 

 tarpon-fishing, but, looking at it from the standpoint 

 of sport at home, I take my risk of blame, knowing 

 that the facts are as stated. 



Yet luck and brute force are elements in the 

 wild life so dear to the sportsman, in the battle of 

 the jungle and the silent struggle of the ocean, and 

 should appeal to us. I f fishing were a mere equation 

 of skill and previous knowledge, if fish were caught 

 with brains only and not with brawn, if neither the 

 caprice of fortune nor the strength of a good right 

 arm had their share in the making of a good bag, 

 why, to Jericho with the sport of sports ! It would 

 be a pastime only for professional chess-players. 

 It may at once be said that tarpon-fishing will give 

 no joy to those who find only half their pleasure in 

 catching fish, and the other (and greater) half in 

 bragging to their friends that their success was the 

 result of long and patient study of the ways of fish. 

 In tarpon-fishing, neither previous experience nor 

 long and patient study are the passport to success. 

 The tenderfoot is on all fours with the veteran, and 

 I would rather have, so to speak, an ounce of luck 

 than a ton of experience. 



The brightness and beauty of Boca Grande on a 

 fine May morning, with the mocking-birds singing 

 their love-lays in the thickets, pelicans wheeling 



