60 THE TARPON 



last evening, I recalled C. F. Holder's remarks on the dangers 

 incident to this sport. In his "Big Game at Sea," he says: 



"The angler is always taking a chance, I have seen a 

 tarpon wreck a boat hurling chairs, tackle, oars into the 

 air. Tarpon fishing is without doubt the most sensational 

 and exciting of spoits and one of the most dangerous when 

 persistently followed. Between tiger hunting and tarpon 

 fishing as a steady occupation, the former might be chosen 

 as the safer pastime." 

 I was in a mood to believe almost tliirty per cent of these state- 

 ments. 



A few years ago, my attention was called to a footnote in 

 Dr. Breder's paper on the "Locomotion of Fishes," reading 

 as follows : 



'* Tarpon atlafiticns possess a long wisp at the poster- 

 ior margin of the dorsal. This is concave below and tapers 

 to a slim point. Mr. L. L, Mowbray ascribes a special and 

 definite function to this with reference to the famed leap- 

 ing habits of the species. Preparatory to making a leap, 

 according to Mowbray, the tarpon lashes this whip around 

 to one side of the body and clamps it tight to its side. Here 

 it adheres because of suction as the grooved piece lifts 

 slightly from the body at its center. The dorsal is thus 

 held rigidly to one side so aiding in determining the 

 course. Even in a dead fish the adheeion is considerable 

 when the raj^ is applied in the manner described. The 

 turn is made toward the side to which the ray is adher- 

 ing." 



In Breder's "Field Book of Marine Fishes of the Atlantic 

 Coast," (Putnam's 1929) which should be in the kit of every 

 salt water angler, the author says : 



"The produced last dorsal ray functions in the tremen- 

 dous leaps that the tarpon is famed for. It is concave be- 

 low and adheres to the side of the fish, bending and secur- 



