FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 113 



can tarpon-reel, which does everything that can 

 reasonably be demanded of it, is not more than four 

 inches in diameter, yet comfortably takes two hundred 

 yards of strong line on the barrel. It is furnished 

 with very powerful multiplying gear, as well as with 

 three brakes or drags ; one at the edge, a second to 

 prevent the handles revolving when a fish pulls line 

 off the reel, and a third, of leather, which the right 

 thumb jams against the line on the barrel, constitut- 

 ing a very powerful check on the fish. This 

 wonderful reel is light and strong and as perfect a 

 reel as I ever used anywhere. Its one drawback is 

 its high price. Nine sovereigns for a reel may to 

 many seem ridiculous. Before I had used this reel 

 of Vom Hofe's against tarpon, I thought it so my- 

 self. Now I know that if he asked twice the price 

 for it he would have to have it. On the strict 

 basis of cost of production it could no doubt be 

 placed on the market much cheaper, but until 

 someone else has either the effrontery to infringe 

 his patents or the inventiveness to improve on 

 them^ he, as the sole maker, will continue to ask 

 and get the present price. 



The line, an undressed twist, is no stouter than 

 we use at home for large pollack onh^ a tenth of the 

 tarpon's fighting weight. It is not, if the truth 

 must be told, miraculously durable after use in salt 

 water. In all probability, however carefully they 

 may be tested before leaving the works, these lines 

 vary in quality. On one I killed about 500 lbs. 

 weight of tarpon, not to mention other fish, in 

 one week. On another I killed nearly 600 lbs. 

 weight in another week. On the other hand, a 

 third line was rejected after breaking twice in one 



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