;v>4 



The American Auirler. 



nearly all others of the great group of 

 isospondyloiis fishes, it has the air- 

 bladder well -developed, with a pneu- 

 matic duct opening from it into the 

 mouth. In the tarpon this duct is quite 

 long, and the air-bladder is profusely 

 supplied with blood-vessels, a fact 

 which has doubtless misled Mr. Wood 

 and others as to its lung-formation. 

 Dr. Barton W. Evermann, of the 

 United States Fish Commission, writes 

 me in this connection : 



"It should hardly be called a lung, 

 and the fish is no more nearly warm- 

 blooded than a sucker or any other fish. 

 The air-bladder is very lung-like also 

 in the gar-pikes and the like." 



Dr. Glinther, the English ichthyolo- 

 gist, in his " Study of Fishes," covers 

 the entire field of inquiry on this sub- 

 ject. He states: 



" The air-bladder, one of the most 

 characteristic organs of fishes, is a hol- 

 low sac, formed of several tunics, con- 

 taining gas, situated in the abdominal 

 cavity, but without the peritoneal sac, 

 entirely closed or communicating by a 

 duct with the intestinal tract. Being 

 compressible, its special functions con- 

 sist of altering the specific gravity of 

 the fish or in changing the center of 

 gravity. In a few fishes it assumes the 

 function of the organ of higher verte- 

 brates, of which it is the homologue — 

 viz., of a lung." 



The leaps of the tarpon, when 

 restrained by the line, are a grand 

 acrobatic exhibition, and are, in fact, 

 the source of the attraction by which 

 anglers are led to pursue this great fish. 

 When he ceases to vault into the air, 

 the contest with him on the rod levels 

 to the plane of fishing for shark, saw- 

 fish or jewfish, monster water-denizens 

 whose capture simply exhibits the 

 individual prowess of the rodster — a 



combat of muscles. But exact as this 

 statement surely is, the leap of the 

 tarpon is a thrilling sight, and is apt 

 to create an electric pulsation in the 

 holder of the rod; it is the grandest 

 sight that ever fired the eye of an 

 angler. The magnificent fish, over six 

 feet long, with his gleaming coat of 

 molten silver, shoots into the bright 

 sunshine with a full foot of daylight 

 showing between the tip of his tail and 

 the seething foam of his wake! Look 

 at him as he, dog-like, shakes his mail- 

 clad head to void the hook, and then 

 slides back into the water, only to 

 gather momentum for yet more furious 

 leaps and plunges and mad throes of 

 desperate combat! Look at him as he 

 makes the waters boil and surge until 

 thc}^ glitter and sparkle like his own 

 unrivalled panoply of resplendent 

 armor, in his vain efforts to escape 

 from the trifle of thread, which vibrates 

 perilously between his huge jaws, and 

 the yielding tip of your rod one hun- 

 dred and fifty feet away! Of such is 

 the delight and excitement in tarpon- 

 fishing. Reports, trending upon the 

 marvellous, come to us about the 

 height and compass of the leap of the 

 tarpon. Dr. J. C. Kenworthy, to whom 

 is due the credit of being the first to 

 bring the tarpon as a great game-fish 

 to the notice of American anglers, 

 writing under the noui de plume of 

 "Al Fresco," stated that he had seen 

 tarpon frequently jump eight feet per- 

 pendicularly from the water, repeating 

 the act on one occasion fifteen times, 

 leaving the water fully eight feet each 

 time. He also reported that on another 

 outing he had a large tarpon seize the 

 bait and then leap, landing at least 

 twenty-five feet from the point of 

 departure. Again he writes that the 

 captain of the steamer "Water Lily" 



