of cavalli and ravallia. Long Boat Inlet, an entrance to this bay, must not be overlooked.

Many points in Charlotte Harbor offer inducements to the fly-fisher. If he tires of using the split bamboo, he can troll with a spinner and land large channel bass and cavalli; for divertisement he can seat himself in an arm chair on the dock at Punta Rassa and imitate my friend Matthew Quay (late Secretary of State of Pennsylvania), who landed fifty-six large sheepshead in one hour. If dissatisfied with this description of sport the piscator can indulge in the capture of Jew-fish, weighing from one to three hundred pounds. On the Calloosahatchee, above the islands, the fly caster can be satiated with sport in landing large-sized cavalli. From Charlotte Harbor southward every entrance, bay, pass and lagoon will afford royal sport.

Delicate mist-colored leaders are not a necessity, for Florida fish have not been educated or posted with regard to the tricks of the craft. They seem to recognize but little difference between a single strand of gut and a clothes-line. The main things requisite are strong leaders and large-sized hooks, for when fish are so plentiful and valueless the fisherman is apt to try and see how many he can land within a given period. With regard to flies, almost any of the more common ones will answer a good purpose. My choice for channel bass, cavalli, sea trout and bone fish is a large-sized gaudy fly with a large-sized hook.

To reach the south-west coast persons can go direct

from Savannah or Fernandina, or visit Jacksonville en route. At Cedar Keys, Tampa, or Manatee they can charter a sloop or schooner of from four to six tons for five or six dollars per day. This amount will cover captain, boy, small boat, bedding, stove and cooking utensils. Fish, beach birds, oysters and clams are plentiful, and the expense of the culinary department will be from fifty cents to five dollars per capita per diem, according to the dietetic proclivities of the persons comprising the party.

The coast is shallow, the ten-fathom line ranging from thirty to forty miles from shore, and as a consequence there is no undertow, rollers or heavy seas. The passage from Cedar Keys to Bay Biscayne can be made in a small boat at almost any time. On one occasion the writer made the trip from Key West to Cedar Keys in a boat sixteen feet in length.

Fly-fishing in Florida is a recent development, and it offers a large field for experiment and investigation ; and I trust that the period is not far distant when the sport will be indulged in by the many. By the first of January, 1884, Tampa will be reached from this city in twenty-four hours via Sanford and Kissimmee. From what we know of railroads in this State we feel assured that one will be completed to Punta Rassa within two years; when Charlotte Harbor and Estero Bay, the greatest of fishing points, will be rendered accessible to all.

In preparing this article we have used the common

names of fish, and the reason for so doing will be obvious to all. In passing through this city, if fly-fishers will call upon me between 12 м. and 2 P.M., I will endeavor to smooth the road for them.

JACKSONVILLE, FLA.

FLY-FISHING.

BY

COL. E. Z. C. JUDSON.-"NED BUNTLINE."

FISHERMEN are born such-not made! That is my private opinion, publicly expressed. It is founded upon the experience of full half a century on ocean, lake, river, and brook. I have taken a mature man with me on a fishing trip, who had never cast "a line in pleasant places," lent him rod and tackle, made a few casts in his presence, caught perhaps a half a dozen trout, and then watched his imitative power combined with the tact born in him. If he was one of the right sort he would go right on improving every hour, and in a little while begin to fill his creel with the best of us.

My personal knowledge of fish and fishing began early. My father had few superiors as an angler, and trouting was his specialty. He made his own rods, lines and flies. The first was a tapering ashen polegenerally about ten feet long-scraped, oiled and varnished till it was as smooth and bright as glass. The line was made from horse-hair and braided with a care and patience that used to be a wonder to me.

The blue-jay, the red-headed woodpecker, the pheasant and wood-duck were shot for fly-feathers. When I

was a wee toddler in skirts I used to hold hooks and snells and play at "helping papa."

All this was done here at the head of the Delaware, where both my father and myself were born. But a change came. When I was about six years old my father bought a large tract of wild land in the wildest. part of Wayne County, Pennsylvania, and settled on it. The Lackawaxen Creek ran right through it, and that then lovely stream was literally alive with speckled trout. From the day we entered our log house there I was a fisher-boy. I caught trout every day in the summer, for a big spring rose within a rod of the house and from it ran a lively brook to the main stream, ten rods away, and even a pin-hook and linen thread would draw them out.

As I grew older I would go with my father to the big eddies and deep holes, where he would lure the largest to his fly and I was only too-too utterly happy when allowed to wade waist deep in the water to carry or float his string of trout toward home.

Since then never a summer has passed, except when actively engaged in naval or military service for my country, that has not found me fishing somewhere. I have covered the best waters in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont; Canada and the British Provinces know me of old; California, Oregon and British Columbia— all along the Big Rockies-have seen me testing flies and bait, the former often tied rudely on the spur of necessity, but generally very effectively. For where