Ill SPORT WITH TARPON 23 



or some such preparation that would keep the brine out, and 

 would lessen the trouble of looking after when brought back 

 to England. Mr. Alfred Harmsworth, in the chapter he con- 

 tributed to the Badminton volume on Sea Fishing, makes the 

 suggestion that tarpon lines should have a distinct colouring 

 for each 50 yards or so ; his reason is that when the line gets 

 wet and swells, it is difficult to tell how much is left on the 

 reel. Silk lines have been tried, and other materials, for fishing 

 in Florida, but the most experienced of the tarpon men stuck 

 loyally to the thread line which I have described, and which is 

 figured on p. 19. 



What in England we call a trace, collar, or snood, is in 

 America called a snell, and this is probably, next to the 



winch, the most important part of the tarpon 



The Snell. 

 equipment The type which I adopted and 



adhered to was made of a strip of raw hide, and that is what 

 is figured in the illustration in front of tarpon. The principal 

 objection to this leather snell (though at the same time it is an 

 advantage) is the ease with which it is bitten through by the 

 sharks which you are continually hooking on the tarpon grounds. 

 If you would avoid this vexation, and can put up with consider- 

 able loss of time, you may use a snell of cotton cord, loosely 



