C4 GAME FISH OF FLORIDA. 



killing the tarpum, I am told, is to strike it with a har 

 poon, to which is attached by ;i strong line a small 

 empty cask ; the lish, hy struggling with this buoy, 

 exhausts itself so that it may he approached in a boat 

 and killed with a lance. I lately hooked a mysterious 

 fish or fishes (for the same thing happened to me three 

 times within an hour) which ran out 50 or GO yards of 

 line with a single dash, and then breached on the sur 

 face, taking away my hooks. It was so strong and swift 

 that in trying to check it a thumbstall of thick buckskin 

 was cut through by the line as if by a knife, and my 

 thumb burned by the friction. This was either a shovel- 

 nosed shark, which runs off in this way, not turning 

 like a common shark, or a tarpum, and as a school of 

 these fishes has been often seen near the spot where I 

 hooked my fish, I am inclined to think it was this species 

 which I then encountered. The rush was more like 

 that of a fresh run salmon than of any other fish I 

 know, except that this one did not leap out of the water 

 like the salmon. 



Not having access to any works on icthyology, I am 

 unable to give the scientific names of these fishes. 

 They are mentioned under the above names by Captain 

 Romans, who wrote a &quot; Concise Natural History of 

 Florida,&quot; about 1773. Xew York anglers, who kill 30 

 or 40 Ibs. striped bass with the rod, would find in the 

 jew-fish and tarpum foemen worthy of their steel. 



The variety of species which one meets with in these 

 waters in a few days fishing, while it adds much to the 

 variety and interest of the sport, causes a great loss of 

 hooks and lines. 



Perhaps you rig will) small hooks for pigfish or whit 

 ing, and a red-fish of twenty pounds takes away your 



