TARPON-FISHING. 213 



fully cut the surface of the water as the fish goes cruising along, 

 while the last ray is immensely elongated, reaching backward and 

 nearly parallel to the body, a graceful ornament or crest. The 

 ventral fin is similar in shape, but pointing downward. The tarpon 

 is shaped like a herring, its mouth is cut in from the top of the 

 head. It has a large, full eye, but its great beauty is in its 

 burnished silver coat of mail that gleams white as it turns its side 

 to the sunshine, or leaps from the water when it is hooked. This 

 beauty of scale gives it its local name of Grande Ecaille. 



Among the lumber on our deck was a bunch of a dozen green 

 bamboo poles sixteen feet in length, and cutting off the too pliant 

 tips, and mounting guides of copper wire, and lashing on our reels 

 with the same, we were soon provided with suitable fishing tackle, 

 a little rough to the eye, but serviceable as any. Taking each a 

 canoe with a paddler, we drifted along among the islands in about 

 ten feet of water, and with a piece of mullet for bait, we cast here 

 and there, letting the bait sink to the bottom, and then drawing it 

 slowly upward. Reaching the end of an island that faced the 

 open water we steadied our boats, and cutting up some mullet, 

 " churned " the water with the pieces. This soon brought visitors. 

 The first was a catfish, a sullen-looking fellow with a mouth like a 

 half-shut door, and barbed with cord like whiskers. He came up 

 heavily, and after prying open his mouth with a handspike he 

 plunged back sullenly in the bay. The next visitor was a channel- 

 bass. Bright and quick, with a rush and a jump, he brought life 

 and light to the boats, and was welcomed with a cheer. Away he 

 sped with forty feet of line, turned a somersault, and flew off in 

 the opposite direction, and when the weight of the line pulled too 

 heavily, jumped again to clear it, then came to the boat, and was 

 nicely gaffed by the negro oarsman. He was a fish of twenty 

 pounds, with a bronzed back shaded into silvery sides, and two 

 spots of black appeared one on each side just forward of the tail. 

 And so the day wore on. Bass, spotted trout, catfish and red- 

 snapper, in varied order, but the tarpon came not to our hooks. 



" If you un's waren't so green you 'd ketch 'em two at eh time ; 

 them fish kin smell a man what lives on shore, and they steers 

 right away," said the captain on reaching our boat again. 



