24 THE ENGLISH ANGLER IN FLORIDA m 



woven, and wound around with copper wire. (The 



H snell that is armed with wire is often woven so as 



to appear something Hke the wick of a lamp.) I 



maintain, however, that, all things considered, the 



raw hide snell is best, for when your bait is taken by 



a shark, there is an immediate severance, and an 



end of the trouble. This strip of leather is fastened 



to the line by a loop. 



There is a regulation hook made for tarpon, and in 



the illustration it has been photographed its full size. 



The reader may remember that Mr. Stearns, 

 The Hook. 



quoted by Goode, refers to the difficulty, 



experienced at the date of his writing, in hooking the 



tarpon. The truth is, the interior of the tarpon's mouth 



is most curiously plated, and there are few vulnerable 



spaces into which the barb of a hook can penetrate. 



There are holding places somewhere in 



the roof and around the rims of the 



" lips," and once I hooked a tarpon in 



the tongue. For the rest, a hook has 



as much chance of penetrating the sides 



THE TARPON HOOK. of ^ tarpon's mouth as of a stone wall. 



