94 SEA FISH OF TRINIDAD 
silence. When they reached the spot they saw pieces of the 
boat, but no body. As the spring-tide was running out fast, 
and the “‘remous’’ was near at hand, this was not remark- 
able. After rowing round some time, one of the crew, seeing 
a huge object rise in the immediate vicinity of Pointe Rouge, 
raised a shout of ‘‘Baleine’’ (whale), but on getting nearer, they 
espied the large fan-like fin of a monster “ Maman-Balaou,”’ 
or ‘Ocean Gar,”’ the largest of the Scomberoides. Nearer 
still, they could make out the gigantic beak or bill, possibly 
1o to 12 ft. in length, and concluded he was lying by for 
fresh victims as all three men had been presumably lost near 
this point. Galgitt Tardieu, during his forty years’ experi- 
ence, had never seen a fish of this size, so he returned to 
Scotland Bay, for more pirogues, and as many harpooners as 
he could get together, to rid the Bocas of this terror. 
It will be necessary here to digress a little, in order to give 
most of the readers of The Mirror some information regard- 
ing the Tardieus, who are and have been the hereditary fish- 
ing chiefs of the Bocas. The senior members of this family 
are six in number, and are direct descendants of those two 
gallant vikings and hardy old whalers, Charles Dominique 
Tardieu and Jean Baptiste Tardieu, names that were house- 
hold words to a bygone generation. The living representa- 
tives of these good old sea-dogs, are all known by sobriquets 
flavouring strongly of the finny denizens of the deep. “Gal- 
gitt Grandécaille,’’ “Vent-Vieille’ and “Fontaine Fish,” 
have their residences and carry on their fishing business at 
Scotland Bay; ‘Charles Tassard’’ is the doyen of Taitron 
Bay; “Charles Carangue’’ takes care of Gasparillo and its 
waters, while “Joseph Jolle-rouge’” has Grand Fond at 
Monos under his fostering wing. 
These chieftains of the fishing clans now met together 
and mapped out the plan of campaign. Each one was to 
furnish a pirogue with four oarsmen and two harpooners, 
and in addition they hired the pirogue of “ Molung Baba,” at 
Taitron Bay, which was put in charge of Captain Modeste 
and a scratch crew, including those veteran harpooners, 
Mathieu and Joseph Tomar. The programme was, after 
harpooning the monster, to try and head him into either 
