THE TARPON 65 



These fish weighed about fifteen pounds, I express my thanks 

 to Mr. Leiman who made a careful investigation and I do not 

 doubt the accuracy of his report. 



In October and November, 1916, many thousands of dead fish 

 of all kinds were cast ashore on the West Ooast of Florida be- 

 tween Boca Grande and Marco. It was estimated by Govern- 

 ment observers that these fish would have been sufficient to 

 supply for a year the entire State of Florida. Among them 

 were many tarpon. The Government made a careful investi- 

 gation as to what caused this mortality and the results were 

 published in the Bureau of Fisheries Document No. 848 under 

 the title "jMortality of Fishes on the West Coast of Florida." 

 Mr. Harden F. Taylor, the investigator, was unable to reach 

 any definite conclusion. Such catastrophes are not unusual. 

 In 1894, millions of tile fish were killed by a sudden change in 

 the temperature and the dead fish covered an area of about 

 7,500 square miles of water. It was estimated that about one 

 billion fish perished. 



In his "Florida Wild Life", Charles Torrey Simpson cites 

 another striking instance of the destruction of fish life follow- 

 ing a marked change in temperature : 



"After the great freeze of January 18, 1886, billions 

 (I) of fish of a great number of species were washed up 

 on the shores of the West Coast of the State and all bays 

 and rivers were covered with them. Immediately after 

 the cold I went out on the Coast in a sailboat, and re- 

 turning to the mouth of the Manatee River at nightfall 

 undertook to row a skiff home but the entire surface of 

 the water was literally packed solid with dead fish. It 

 became impossible to dip the oars in the water, they 

 simply skidded over the fish and finally I had to paddle 

 but I made such slow progress that I only reached home 

 along towards morning, a distance of perhaps three miles 

 from my starting point. During hurricanes vast num- 

 bers of fish are driven close in to shore and the sand is 



