ToL. I. No. 15. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



■23.3 



WEST INDIAN FISHERIES. 



TARPON IN 



We are indebted to ]Mr. Sylvester ]Jevi.iiisIi, late 

 Surveyor-General of Trinidad, for the following very 

 interesting notes on the Tarpon or G nt mJc Ei-nillc as 

 it i.s known in that Colony : — 



iEany years ago I was often asked by several of our 

 Governors, to act as their Aide de-caiiii>, pro tern, and 

 organize for some of their friends, either officers of the 

 Garrison, or sporting tourists, or both, a tarjjon fishirig 

 excursion in the Gulf. 



Many a jolly party I have thus liad in n-.y Ameriean 

 built boat the Swan, well stocked for those occasions with all 

 necessary supplies, including a useful ' Norwegian stove,' 

 which, in the bows, quickly and most efficiently did its duty, 

 in cooking or keeping warm our meals for the daj'. 



The tarpon is very common in Trinidad, particuLuly in 

 a small estuary called ' the blue river,' or (by the Spaniards) 

 ' el caiio Sitlnilo,' situated a little over two miles south of the 

 Caroui river. It is about two miles long, with a width varying 

 from 30 to 5 feet, and has at low water a deptli of about 3 feet 

 at its entrance and between 2 and 5 fathoms higher up. 

 Here is a favourite resort of the tarpon, winch feed on the 

 plentiful sujiply of .small fi.sh brought in by the tide, and on 

 oj-sters which they easily crack open with their strong, hard, 

 bony jaws. They generally weigh there from 10 to 201b. 

 but are sometimes of a much greater size. My old friend 

 ;Mr. E. F. O'C . . . our renowned greatest fisherman of days 

 long gone by, once caught a tarpon weighing 1051b. This 

 was the largest I have ever heard of in our waters. As 

 Mr. O'C, was constantly fishing there, day and night, he has 

 been nicknamed ' Tlie Admiral of the blue river' and is 

 certainly the best authority on fish we have in Trinidad. 



The habits of the tarpon have been well described by 

 previous correspondents, paiticularly its facility to rid itself 

 of the hook when the line slackens, owing to the hard bones 

 in the roof of its mouth. We do not use the 'rod' here 

 but 18 thread trawling lines, with hooks Nos. 1 and 2 

 and 7 fathoms wire Nos. 18 or 19. We found it a great 

 improvement to have a smaller hook and a larger one fastened 

 hack to had; as with this addition the fish is less able to 

 free himself. 



The best bait is young mullets or large sardines and 

 anchovies, but the tarpon is so voracious that it blindly 

 snaps at anything spinning in the water, such as a piece of 

 white cloth or the pith of the Agave, bifurcated at the end 

 in imitation of a fish's tail and commonly used when no 

 Ijetter bait is at hand. 



One of the most marked peculiarities of this fif^h is its 

 inack, wJien hauled almost abreast of the boat, suddenly tj 



TRINIDAD. 



leap cleiui out of the water to a height of 12 to 15 feet, when 

 it often throws ofi' the hook and falls in the water effecting 

 an easy escape to the great disapijointinent of its would- 

 be catchers. Having lost several in this way, it struck 

 me that we nugiit [lerhaps find a way of securing the 

 fi.sh, and I suggested that as soon as the tarpon was nearing 

 the boat and iire})aring to take its flight, we should all of us 

 (generally 4 or 5 e.wlusive of the lioatnien) have ready 

 to our shoulders the shoi-t I)reechdoading carbines, then used 

 in the Artilkay, and as soon as the (then flying) fish was at 

 a sufficient height in the air to send it a general volley which 

 would at once bring it down, when with either a lioat hook 

 or a harpoon, always kept ready for the puriiose, it could be 

 eiisily secured before it sank, and brought aljoard. Owing to 

 the toughness and .sli[ipenness of their scales they should 

 always be shot from the tail ui)wards. This proved eminently 

 successful and it was really good fun, thus adding shooting 

 to fishing sport. 1 do not know whether it has ever lieen 

 tried elsewhere, but if not I would certainly recommend 

 its being tried. 



The tarpon when dead emits in the dark a vivid, 

 brilliant, ett'ulgent light visible at several hundred yards. 

 I recollect (mce, at ' Chacachare,' noticing from my boafc 

 at a little distance from the land, on a starry night, an 

 object shining on the shore like a highly polished piece of 

 silver, and on getting near found it to be a dead 

 tarpon about 2 feet long hanging to a fisherman's net-jiole. 

 It is a pity the flesh of the tai-pon is not more savoury 

 and ' recherche,' as it would greatly add to the [ileasure of 

 the fishing. 



The scales of the tarjion when it is alive or recently 

 dead are beautiful. They are flat, transiiarent, of a pure 

 white, fringed all round, with a silvery segment at the root, 

 and delicate pretty designs along their i)erimeter, not 

 uidike lace, and very pleasant to look at when placed between 

 the eye and the light. 



It once occurred to me that they might pei'haps Ijb 

 converted into very original and curious visiting cards. I 

 tried some and found that they could easily be written or 

 printed on, but to my great disappointment found that in 

 time they lost their transparency and pure white and silver 

 and warped, although 1 kept them heavily jiressed for 

 several days. 



This, of course, greatly discouraged me, but I still 

 believe that if properly treated by a professional card maker, 

 they might be turned into useful things. I am not aware 

 that any attempt has been made to use the n in any way, 

 but I believe it is worth trying. 



