66 THE TARPON 



SO disturbed that it gets into their gills, finally choking- 

 them to death. After such storms I have wandered for 

 miles along the beaches on which these poor dead fish 

 were actually piled in places." 

 A slight change in the balance of nature works havoc among 

 fish precisely as it does among birds. It is, after all, catas- 

 trophic changes in natural conditions that have caused the 

 destruction of many species formerly inhabiting the earth. 



As a rule fish having exposed gills die very quickly when 

 taken from the water, whereas those like the cat fish or sharks 

 can survive for some time. They die because the filaments 

 of the external gill openings dry up, stick together and are 

 prevented from functioning. (Norman.) 



If you wish to keep a tarpon alive for a short time for any 

 purpose, you can accomplish this by wrapping a wet bag or 

 cloth around its gills and applying water freely to keep the 

 wrapping well soaked. 



In the last edition I stated that for some time past I had been 

 trying to ascertain the age of the tarpon. Since then (1930) 

 but little progress has been made. 



The age of many fish like the cod, hake or salmon can be de- 

 termined, at least approximately, by an inspection of the 

 scales. If a scale from one of these fish is examined, it will be 

 found to be composed of numerous concentric rings, the dis- 

 tance between which varies in a definite manner. As Dr. 

 Nichols expressed it in a letter to me : 



''A fish scale grows from the center to the margins by 

 addition of concentric rings. If the growth is periodically 

 accelerated and retarded, examination of sufficient ma- 

 terial of that species enables one to recognize such periods 

 of acceleration and retardation and to count them. In 

 high latitudes they correspond to recurring winter sea- 

 sons — therefore to the age of the fish in years. It will be 

 a question whether in any tropical fish like the tarpon 

 such annual circles would exist." 



