8o SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



and my interest was quickened by his assurance 

 that the robbers were trout. At last, striking, 

 perhaps, a Httle more sharply, I hooked my cus- 

 tomer, and a very pretty struggle followed, the fish 

 boring all round the boat, like a mackerel, and 

 bending the bamboo until it looked as if it must 

 snap. The end came at last, and I had the satis- 

 faction of seeing a handsome spotted fish of about 

 two pounds. Trout ? Well, there were the spots, 

 and the fight had been not unworthy of that fish. 

 But there was no adipose fin, and a closer ex- 

 amination revealed that this was not a member of 

 the salmon family. Years earlier, in Australia, I 

 had grown accustomed to hearing fish miscalled 

 trout and salmon, with much less resemblance to 

 those forms than this one, and a little later I learnt 

 that this was correctly known as the Spotted 

 Squeateague, known in Florida indiscriminately 

 as " trout " or " sea trout," and considered excellent 

 eating, save when, as at that season, the flesh was 

 infested with parasite worms. I caught five or six 

 more of the same kind and size, and then, seeing that 

 a heavy thunderstorm was unmasking its batteries 

 behind the hotel, I got back to the shore. The 

 hotel is an immense barrack, and in the winter 

 months it is, I believe, a "home from home" for 

 hundreds. In summertime, it is about as gay as 

 the Morgue, and to be the only guest under its 

 capacious roof is to get a severe attack of the blues. 

 The thunder rolled ominously overhead, and day- 

 light faded quickly before the gathering darkness 

 of the storm. Fortunately, I found in a corner of 

 the gloomy hall a piano of good tone, and that 

 instrument stood between me and a sudden desire 



