The Majestic Tarpon 309 



out of its mouth. In this it very often succeeds, 

 much to the chagrin of the fisherman, whose utmost 

 skill is powerless to prevent such an accident unless 

 by great good fortune the hook should have penetrated 

 the only vulnerable part of the jaw. 



One night in Barbadoes, fishing with ordinary 

 tackle, I hooked Tarpon over twenty times, and lost 

 them before I had gathered in half a dozen fathoms 

 of the line. For whenever they sprang into the air, 

 which they did as soon as they felt the hook, they 

 leaped towards the boat at the same time, and my 

 hooks being of a very inferior type and not at all like 

 the keen slender hooks sold for Tarpon-fishing, they 

 would not hold, especially as I could not keep a strain 

 on the line. But at last I did succeed in catching one 

 (he fell off the hook the moment he entered the boat), 

 and immediately examining his mouth I found it 

 apparently entirely devoid of any place where a 

 hook could enter except the edge of the lip. It 

 seemed to be all solid, polished bone. I thought 

 I had never seen a more beautiful fish. Its eyes 

 were very large and full, and its scales, each as big 

 as a crown piece, were just like planished plates of 

 mother of pearl. Of the quality of its flesh I can say 

 nothing, as I sold it, and so did not assist at the eating 

 of my prize. 



