268 Big Game Fishes 



head at a difficult gaffing and strike at or down 

 upon a fish, and so cut the line a crime of 

 sinister character, for which the code provides no 

 adequate punishment, especially after a fish has 

 been played for several hours. 



One of the charms of tarpon, as well as tuna, 

 angling is that it is preeminently a social pas- 

 time. Often fifteen or twenty boats are grouped 

 within hailing or signalling distance, and the man 

 who has no strikes is regaled with the vaulting 

 fish of more fortunate anglers, and the sight. of 

 four or five tarpons in the air at once is a most 

 exhilarating scene ; yet Byron in " Don Juan " 

 refers to angling as a solitary vice. 



"... angling, too, that solitary vice, 

 Whatever Izaak Walton sings or says ; 

 The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet 

 Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it." 



There were many delights which did not enter 

 the soul of the great poet, almost the only man 

 of distinction to denounce angling. Yet we may 

 pardon him, as he appears to except the tuna and 

 would probably commend the tarpon had he 

 known this noble fish. His honest dislike for 

 angling is well worth quoting, and in a note to 



