36 THE TARPON 



inches in length. When diving on Lamertin Reef, several 

 miles across the Gulf, I saw a large tarpon again and 

 again. For a number of days in succession this great silver 

 fish would swim toward me on my first submersion and 

 pass slowly within eight or ten feet, looking me over. 



"When I learned that this would probably happen every 

 time I went down, I devoted all my attention to estimating 

 his exact length. Once he swam past two very tall tube 

 sponges, and I could see distinctly that he overlapped the 

 distance between them in actual body length, not including 

 his tail. I measured this distance and found it six feet 

 three inches. So, even ignoring the slight overlap, he was 

 a full six feet in length of body. He showed no fear, only a 

 gentle curiosity, rolling his great eye about as he passed. 

 His scales reflected the light, even at a depth of twenty- 

 five feet, as a dazzling sheet of bluish silver. 



''I could learn of no tarpon being caught on a hook in 

 Haiti, although anglers have made many attempts. The 

 native fishermen were familiar with them, and, as I have 

 said, occasionally found them in their seines." 

 Dr. Alfred C. Weed, of the Field Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, at Chicago, wrote me the following interesting comments 

 on Dr. Beebe's discovery: 



"I am inclined to disagree with Dr. Beebe's idea that 

 it would be impossible for the tarpon to spawn in his 

 Haitian lagoon, regardless of the muddiness or shallow- 

 ness of the water. At Point Isabel, Texas, in 1924, I re- 

 peatedly saw tarpon in the shallow, muddy waters of 

 Laguna Madre. They seemed quite at home in water not 

 nearly deep enough to cover the fish and so muddy that 

 one could not see the bottom at a depth of six inches. My 

 own reaction to Beebe's account is to say that if he found 

 two-inch tarpon in Source Matelas on January 13 and on 

 January 23 found the smallest ones three inches long, 

 there were probably specimens not much over an inch 



