W37 



PREFACE 



Tarpon fishing sport was for many years a kind of mystery 

 to both American and English fishermen, but within the last 

 decade it has become well known, and has even developed 

 into something like a " boom." At least fifteen years since 

 a gentleman who had caught several tarpon on rod and line, 

 calling upon me in Piccadilly, showed me one of the scales 

 he had brought home from Florida ; and a striking object 

 it was, from its immense size, its horny substance, and, 

 most of all, from that partial covering of fine whitish 

 silver which, at a casual glance, looks as if it could be dusted 

 off with the light flick of a handkerchief From that time 

 forward I kept the tarpon in view as an honest object of 

 desire, and all that I read about it, and the specimens which 

 came under my notice as a taxidermist, confirmed my 

 determination to kill one for myself some day. 



Last spring Mrs. Ward and myself accordingly sailed in the 



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