The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1884-05-28
Letter from St. Augustine.

Letter from st. Augustine.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. May %, 1894
Editor PALATKA DAILY NEWS:
Get the vote of everyone who has Wis
tied this city during the summer, and
we will bet a new hat that nine-tenths Of
them all will state that st. Augustine is
the prettiest and pleasantest place in
Florida DIR. Dewitt says in all America.
The cool sea breeze, the Plaza, the drives
beside the remains of the antique ages
of which the town is full, are superb and
unsurpassed,
But we intend to state to you our eX-
perience and luck in fishing. On Mon
day, DR.. Dewitt, who, by the way claims
to be the "boss" fisherman and to know
all the good places, accompanied by
your correspondent, started in a rOwbOat
supplied with bait and lines. The Doe
tor steered us right across the bay, and
almost opposite the plaza. Here we
dropped anchor, baited our lines, and in
less than an hour we had between fifty
and sixty blackfish, numerous cats and
small sharks. Our best line was hooked,
as we suppose, by a shark. and -- that
was the last Of it. Tuesday, the Doctor
and myself started right after breakfast
and stayed until late in the afternoon.
Our efforts were crowned with a most
surprising result-nearly 800 blackfish,
I IL 10
We're we minus two lines; and how it hap
pened, it is best to have the Doctor re-
peat just as he told it at the hotel:
"There sat the Dutchman on one of the
lines, the end slung around his foot, and
fishing on the other side with another
line for blackfsh. Suddenly l saw leg
fly way up and body drop back in the
bow of the boat, and heard a lot of some
| internal language of which [ don't I'M
derstand a word, and | believe no one else
does, so quick and thick did the sentences
come. I jumped up just in time to help
my mate disentangle himself from the
cable. The line, of course, was broken
and gone"
/ We swOre we would have revenge. and
! in the evening marched down to Hamb-
Inns store, purchased three-foot chain
/ hook and 200 feet of one-inch line.
! Early in the morning we called Doctor,
/ but he didn't feel well enough to go: so
we called on Mr.. Mcmillan, one of the
most enthusiastic and experienced fisher
men around here. On our way to the
/ bay we were joined by Dick Collins, and
we three started out for the lighthouse.
! There we caught a number of fish and a
small shark of the shovel-nose species.
/ Drifting further into the day, and throw
| ing our shark line, we soon had four
| foot man-eater. Now, we thought was
our time to cut that promised piece of
/ steak, but found the skin too tough for
| our knives, and we had to let it be-
| About an hour later we again had a ire
mendous bite. and the whole of the line
ran out. A monster shark of fully seven
| feet long, FLASHED the waters into foam
! We fought him twenty minutes before
we had him alongside the boat Three
pilot-fish, which stuck to his sides, we
took in the boat-the monster itself we
had to let go. The line out again, and
now comes the climax. A bite: jerk;
a pull; and out goes the line, wound
around both oar-locks, quicker than
creased lightning" All three of Us try
to stay it, and more than once the boat
came near capsizing; but we held on
bravely, and after awhile we see that we
have a sting-ray. No chance for us to
get him off: we were all afraid. so we
/ hauled him as near as possible to the boat
and pulled for the shore" We landed
at Sanchez's wharf, and four men lifted
the beast on the wharf. 1t measured
fully feet each way and foot in thick
ness. The tail was 5 feet long, and we
cut it off, to keep and carry as trophy.
RUD.