I40 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



the average, if I remember right, though I have 

 not the figures, and in 1905 there was no season, 

 the inn being closed. This, and perhaps in- 

 sufficient advertisement of the resumption of busi- 

 ness, was probably the reason of the few visitors 

 last season. 



Having now endeavoured to give some idea of 

 the mode of procedure in Pass fishing by describing 

 particular episodes, I must now turn to the brief 

 but necessary consideration of some general prin- 

 ciples, both practice and ethics, which will 

 perhaps be more intelligible after what has gone 

 before. 



The reader's attention has been drawn to the 

 great, perhaps excessive, strength of the tackle. 

 Of this the rod is the most uncompromising 

 element. We used to chaff the veteran with the 

 suggestion that he made his tarpon-rods out of 

 condemned billiard cues, a theory which he took 

 with his usual good humour, and which will be 

 better appreciated by those who have handled 

 the typical American billiard cue. Exaggeration 

 is a part of caricature, and, as a matter of fact, the 

 tarpon-rod is far more elastic than even the most 

 springy English cue, for I have seen one bend like 

 a reed in a gale. Yet, for all that such rigidity 

 may, as alleged, be necessary to strike the hook 

 well home, I should dearly like a moderate-sized 

 tarpon, one of, say, 50 or 60 lbs., on a Hardy 

 split cane salmon-rod. It may be that in the case 

 of slight nibbles, which perhaps predominate, so 

 violent a response is needed that the salmon-rod 

 would not stand the test, but those fish that rush 



