Fish and Fish in o; in America. 



335 



a St. John's river boat, was seated on 

 the forward deck when a small tarpon 

 (62 pounds) jumped over the guard of 

 the boat and landed in the captain's lap, 

 " knocking him head over heels. " But 

 those reports, unquestionably truthful, 

 pale before the one printed in the 

 Houston Post, and vouched for by an 

 angler of Velasco, Texas : 



"As the steam-tug Mollie Mohr was 

 coming up the river from the jetties 

 this morning, she ran through a school 

 of tarpon about half a mile below the 

 city. Three of these huge fish leaped 

 clear across the tug's forward deck, one 

 of them narrowly missing Tom Ross's 

 head, the second struck the cabin near 

 where Captain Marshall and a fireman 

 were standing, and made a dent as 

 large as a man's fist in the hard wood. 

 The third struck and bent an iron 

 drift-bolt half an inch in diameter, 

 and glancing off hit Wm. Schunfield 

 between the shoulders, knocking him 

 senseless ; in fact, it was thought for a 

 time he had been killed, and it will be 

 some time before he will be able to 

 resume work." 



I have never seen a tarpon leap 

 higher than about eight feet, that is, 

 allowing six and a half feet as the 

 length of the fish. I have seen them 

 in the air with from one to two feet 

 intervening between the tip of the tail 

 and the surface of the water. But I 

 had an experience, novel and interest- 

 ing, some years ago in Florida which 

 convinced me that this fish relies 

 entirely upon his strategic leaps to free 

 himself from the hook. One day, at 

 Gordon's Pass, I was fishing with light 

 tackle and minnow-lure in the hope of 

 taking a cavalli, when the bait was 

 taken by a large tarpon, which, as is 

 usual when they feel the slightest im- 

 pact of the steel or restraint of the line, 



cavorted into the air within twenty feet 

 of the beach upon which I stood. He 

 frantically repeated his vaulting at 

 least six times, shaking his head vigor- 

 ously as he rushed seaward, although 

 the line was broken and hung slack 

 from the tip of the rod when his first 

 jump was made — a clear case of buck — 

 or rather hook-fever, on the part of fish., 

 It is authentically stated that the tarpon- 

 will leap at the sail of a boat, particu- 

 larly on moonlight nights, if the sail 

 be new and bright, and Texan anglers 

 report that at such times they will take 

 the mullet-bait greedil}^ 



The table qualities of the flesh of 

 the tarpon are in dispute, conflicting 

 opinions having been placed on record 

 during the last twelve years. Jordan 

 and Gilbert, in their "Synopsis of the 

 Fishes of North America," state that it 

 is excellent eating ; Professor G. Brown 

 Goode, in his "American Fishes," 

 says: " It is rarely or never eaten in the 

 United States, its flesh being dry and 

 bony." Dr. J. C. Kenworthy, corre- 

 sponding with "The American Ang- 

 ler," wrote some years ago: 



" Possessing ichthyophagous tenden- 

 cies, I resolved upon determining this 

 matter and cut some steaks from a 

 specimen tarpon weighing 128 pounds. 

 I had them fried, and upon testing 

 them I arrived at the conclusion that 

 as an edible fish the tarpon rates next 

 to the pompano. To me it resembles 

 a spring chicken in flavor. Several 

 gentlemen tasted the fish and con- 

 firmed my opinion. Since that time 

 the flesh of this fish has been sold in 

 this market (Jacksonville, Florida), at 

 ten cents per pound. The flesh is very 

 tender and of a light walnut-tint." 



Another correspondent writes : "I 

 consider the tarpon good eating and 

 think the time will come when it will 



