Paddling under Palmettos — page 209: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

202 Paddling Under Palmettos. Presently he hada strike, for he was trolling a Hill spoon made for the purpose of Florida fishing. Then came a short tussle, which ended with his using the gaff and landing an eight-pound, big- mouth bass. A little further and he took in a second one out of the wet. He had not started out to troll, however, and, as the evening was now close at hand, he changed the spoon for a single fly—a coachman. With this he cast over the shallow places and wherever he thought it likely the bass would be in hiding. They did not take to it very well, and he ane se- cured one—a small fellow. Then Archie thought of a plan that had been used in Florida more than a hundred years to lure the bass, but which seems as taking to-day as in the times of Ponce de Leon or any other ancient worthy who might, after a fashion, have tried its alluring qualities. He took out a peculiar-looking object. This was nothing more nor less than a set of three stout hooks soldered together back to back, and Gomicbooks (E(0)