FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 133 



jaded townsmen to turn their back on Epsom and 

 Ascot and fare forth to bring back a better from the 

 blue treasure-stores of the Gulf. Judging from the 

 many inquiries that have reached me from those 

 who have stood before its dead effigy, I regard it as 

 an enemy of its race. 



The Pass presents a merry spectacle this sunny 

 afternoon. The Useppa contingent is out in its 

 full strength, and there are two more boats from 

 the houseboat and two others from Mr Van Vleck's 

 yacht Novia, so that eleven skiffs, all told, are 

 fishing in that narrow channel, and never fewer 

 than two of them are either dragging fish to the 

 beach or returning to the fray from a landing-place 

 where a shining trophy marks their latest prize. 

 In one boat sits a lady, who jumps her tarpon with 

 the best, yet loses each through the unskilful 

 rowing of the skipper of her husband's yacht, 

 who is acting as guide for the occasion. This 

 is hard, for the sex has achieved many notable 

 successes in other seasons. Mrs Turner and her 

 sister caught in one season more than half as many 

 tarpon as all the men of the party put together. 



Again I am into what seems a monster, though 

 we have only a glimpse of him at his one jump, 

 after which he settles down to a steady run that 

 proceeds without check for five or ten minutes. It 

 seems too much luck to catch two " dandies " in 

 one afternoon, but the fight that he is making con- 

 vinces me that here is another big fish. The 

 collapse comes suddenly, and I get the fish along- 

 side the boat, only to realise that it is a fingerling of 

 no more than thirty or forty pounds. The explana- 



