122 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



the Boer, is commenting on the prospectus of the 

 newly formed Frontiersmen's League. Two 

 others argue over the merits of two kinds of 

 camera. Gradually, however, these interests 

 merge in the business of the day. The conditions 

 are ideal. We are timed to hit the slack tide to a 

 minute, and there is no wind to make the skiffs 

 dance as merrily as they did the other day, with 

 the result that nine tarpon out of every ten got 

 free, for the fisherman cannot attend to two things 

 at once when one of them is a tarpon fighting for 

 its life. 



As we near the Pass, we run by a yacht, a 

 houseboat and a couple of traders loading phos- 

 phates, and here, facing the open Gulf, we are 

 conscious of a light breeze, a zephyr, no more, 

 blowing in from the sea, just sufficient to soften 

 the scorch of the sun and not enough to disturb the 

 surface of the water, already broken by the roll of 

 many fish. 



The vessels are just swinging to their anchors, 

 which shows that we have caught the slack at the 

 right moment, and, as the tide will soon be turning 

 in, the launch gives us a good drift by taking us 

 well down the Pass abreast of the sandspit before 

 turning us loose. On the near shore we see a 

 small band of turkey-buzzards strutting round some 

 fishy jetsom that must have escaped the eye of 

 Leicester, who is generally watchful that all dead 

 fish are cast adrift from his domain. But some- 

 thing of a hundred pounds or so has been deposited 

 within reach of the little vultures, which are 

 greedily tearing off long strips and gorging them 

 with disgusting despatch. 



