FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 123 



At last the engine stops, the launch glides 

 smoothly to rest, and the guides, having cast off the 

 tow rope, paddle quickly alongside. Each fisher- 

 man steps into his own boat and sits down in the 

 comfortable armchair clamped to the after thwart, 

 back to his guide and facing the stern. Out of 

 regard for my shortness of leg Underhill has 

 thoughtfully provided a well-filled sandbag in the 

 stern, which gives me better purchase during the 

 " pull devil, pull baker " game of the day. 



The seven skiffs spread out, the hooks are 

 baited, the sinkers swung over the side and forty- 

 five feet of line (by a mark) allowed to run off the 

 reel. Then the drags are switched on, the left 

 thumb presses a turn of the line against the butt, 

 the right jambs down the leather brake on the 

 line, and the decks are cleared for action. The 

 butt is not rested in the leather cup until a fish is 

 hooked, but is held down, the tip protruding over 

 the gunwale, a little to left or right, so that the 

 fisherman does not impede the guide's view of it. 

 To the practised eye the movement of the tip con- 

 veys a good deal of what is going on down below ; 

 and, from watching it, the guide knows just 

 whether to row ahead, back water, or keep the 

 boat just where she is. I had so long been accus- 

 tomed to learning the movements of bass at home 

 in the same way that it came easy in the Pass. 



When, for the first time this morning, I glance 

 up from my own rod, it is to see the bending of 

 R.'s, who, as usual, has hold of the first fish of the 

 day, a feat that he has repeated with monotonous 

 regularity for more than a week. This morning, 

 however, it is a case of the cup and the lip, for he 



