12 THE ENGLISH ANGLER IN FLORIDA n 



lady about whom we were conversing by the remark : " Well, 

 she is a very fine woman ; weighs quite as much, I should say, 

 as a 1 60 lb. tarpon." 



Being now, therefore, at Punta Gorda, on the scene of 

 action, so to speak, I will take the opportunity of unburdening 

 myself of what I know about the tarpon and how to catch it. 

 Also, this is the convenient time for informing the reader that 

 Mrs. Ward undertook the task of making such rough notes 

 of our daily doings as we thought worth preserving ; and 

 when the tarpon, in its general character, has been disposed 

 of in the following pages, the entries from her Diary will 

 be added for such particulars of sport and travel as she 

 recorded. 



The tarpon bears a variety of names, some of which are 



already falling into desuetude, though occasionally it is still 



The Fish ^P^^^ tarpum. He is " The Silver King " and 



itself. « The Big- Eyed Herring " of his admirers. The 

 late Professor Brown Goode deals with it in the chapter in 

 his work entitled " The Herring and its Allies." He mentions 

 it in connection with the shads, and says the most important 

 member of the family is the Tarpum, or Megcdopus thrissoides, 

 or M. atlanticus. At the time the work was written not a 



