248 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



be more manageable than one of homogeneous 

 origin. 



Colon and Panama should, from all accounts, 

 offer good sea-fishing, and it would indeed be an 

 amusing experience to fish in two oceans in one 

 day. I hope to do this on a future visit. At the 

 Caribbean port, at least, I can answer for the 

 presence of tarpon in the month of June. Captain 

 Laws (of the Tagus) and I fished over the stern one 

 evening, and a score of these great fish, each 

 weighing probably forty or fifty pounds, rose like 

 trout at such shreds of " bully beef" as we threw to 

 them, but fought shy of our hooks with a discern- 

 ment surprising even when we remember the 

 crystal clear water and bright light of those anchor- 

 ages. They cannot surely have had much education 

 in the ways of fishermen, though no doubt baited 

 hooks are often lowered from the wharf or from 

 vessels moored alongside. Only one hook was 

 taken, and my tarpon-rod was all but wrenched out 

 of the Captain's hand, but after one convulsive 

 splash, the hook came away. On a subsequent 

 visit, Captain Laws succeeded in capturing a brace. 

 Angled for with tarpon-tackle from a boat in the 

 early hours of morning, I believe that these mighty 

 fish would give splendid sport, and indeed all along 

 the Royal Mail route there is excellent sea-fishing, 

 with bully beef as the piece de resistance. Fishes 

 great and fishes small dash madly at it so long as it 

 hides no hook, but they are endowed right down 

 the Spanish Main with this same curious distrust. 

 Moreover, it is a difficult material to bait with. Mr 

 Laws knew the way of it, which consists in doubling 

 up some shreds and squeezing a lump into sufficient 



