THE TARPON 37 



long in the same lagoon the latter part of December and 

 that there were probably spawning fish in the lagoon at 

 some time between the end of July and the first of 

 December. 



"From what I know of similar land-locked pools I 

 should expect that there would be a time every year and 

 at about the same date each year when the bar would be 

 broken and stay open for several weeks or, perhaps, 

 months. I should expect that the tarpon would enter the 

 lagoon at that time and spawn. Beebe 's description seems 

 to indicate that the lagoon would offer almost optimum 

 conditions for the growth of the young fish up to a length 

 of perhaps three or four inches and somewhat less favor- 

 able for some time after that. Certainly, a dense growth of 

 unicellular algae, such as he describes, is very distinctly 

 favorable for the growth of very small fish at about the 

 time they begin to feed. I believe that continuous observa- 

 tion of Source Matelas from June to January might and 

 probably would go far toward a solution of the question 

 of the early stages of Tarpon atlanticus." 

 The ladyfish abounds on the bars which border the channel 

 leading to Boca Grande Pass and it probably breeds in that 

 locality. Yet I have never heard of anyone identifying the 

 leptocephalids of that fish although it has been proved to pass 

 through that stage of development. If the young of that com- 

 mon fish have escaped detection, it is not strange that the larva 

 of the tarpon has never been identified. The observer looks for 

 a young fish resembling in form the mature tarpon instead of 

 an indistinct ribbon-like organism almost transparent. When 

 this stage is passed, the young tarpon probably goes to sea. 

 Haiti is eight hundred long sea miles from this Pass and it 

 cannot be true that the ripe fish of both sex one occasionally 

 sees at the Pass travel to Puerto Rico or Haiti to breed. After 



