THE TARPON. 12J 



the anchor and is at the oars, backing gently in the direction 

 the Tarpon has taken. After his first outburst of rage and 

 terrific endeavor to throw out the hook, the fish begins to 

 take things a little more easily. With an occasional running, 

 lengthwise jump, or skip, he makes up the bay, where the 

 channel is narrower, and the proximity to the Mangroves dan- 

 gerous. To head him off I directed Ben to row ahead of him 

 to one side, meanwhile keeping the line taut, and reeling in 

 as much as prudence permitted. This maneuver succeeded, 

 and the Tarpon started back down stream, with a rush that 

 carried out two hundred feet off my reel. I gave him as 

 much of the weight of the boat as was discreet, throwing him 

 line whenever he came out of water, which he did frequently. 

 In this manner he towed us for a mile, to where the river 

 widened out into a small bay. On the way I pass fellow-fish- 

 ermen, who greet us with hurrahs, and such exclamations as 

 "Ain't he a beauty!" "Don't he fight nobly!" "A hundred- 

 and-sixty-pounder, at least!" etc., etc. 



Every time I succeeded in getting him anywhere near the 

 boat, he would make another spurt. Gradually these became 

 feebler; and he finally took to circling round the little bay, 

 all the time, however, some twenty or thirty feet distant from 

 the boat. I kept him hard at work, never allowing him to 

 get his second wind, and at last had the gratification of see- 

 ing him come to the top and turn upon his side, showing his 

 complete state of exhaustion. It was plain sailing after that, 

 and I soon had him within reach of the gaff, and when my 

 boatman gently drew him over into the boat it was half-past 

 two o'clock. He was a noble prisoner; and it had taken just 

 one hour and twenty-five minutes to land him. He weighed 

 one hundred and forty-four (144) pounds, and measured six 

 feet eleven inches. I had him mounted, and presented him 

 to the Polytechnic Society of Louisville, Kentucky. 



This is the way one Tarpon was caught. Another might 

 act differently. While there is a general similarity in their 



