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 

 lo 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 Grandecaille," " 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 imder 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 



