TARPON FISHING IN THE GULF OF MEXICO 503 



fish have, had ejected it some feet up the line. This power of 

 fash is one I cannot understand, but I have noticed it with almost 

 every kind of game and coarse fish I have captured. In tarpon 

 fishing this action is a source of danger. Occasionally a man will 

 get a tarpon well hooked, the bait will be ejected a considerable 

 way up the line, and taken by a shark, who makes very short 

 work of the reel line and is off. The shark, by the way, is said, 

 though probably not in good truth, to be the mortal enemy of 

 the tarpon. A nigger sang me a quaint old song about the 

 shark and the tarpon and their midnight fights. 



We were gloomy and disappointed. Still the day was 

 young and the fish were rising numerously, though it is by 

 some guides not considered a good sign when they are on the 

 top of the water. I cast in again, and almost before the bait 

 had got to the bottom it was taken. 



There are guides who say they can tell in a moment if it is 

 the ' bite ' of a shark, tarpon, or jew-fish. The Florida jew- 

 fish is a huge monster who moves slowly when hooked, but 

 I am bound to say that I did not find any guide who was 

 absolutely infallible in detecting the respective runs of sharks 

 and tarpons. A shark is said to swallow the bait, swim rapidly 

 for a few yards, stop, go on again, and so on. Now, on two 

 occasions during my visit to Florida I found that Master Shark 

 did nothing of the sort, and I had ample opportunity of prov- 

 ing that these fish were sharks in both cases. In the particular 

 ' run ' I am describing, the shark went off quite as fast as a 

 tarpon and did not pause. Perhaps, as Hart afterwards sug- 

 gested, he was being chased by some other shark. When the 

 correct one hundred yards of the reel had run out I struck. 

 There was the usual commotion at the top of the water, though 

 not exactly a leap, and we both thought that I was in for a 

 tarpon. The fish, whatever it was, swam hither and thither at 

 lightning speed, and then on a sudden it stopped. I struck again, 



