Big Game at Sea 



seen them attain a much greater height. I have 

 what I consider perfectly reliable information that a 

 tarpon leaped over the rail and on to the deck of a 

 Gulf Steamer (Morgan Line), which required it to 

 attain a height of from fifteen to eighteen feet. I 

 did not see this incident, but from my observation of 

 the fish I should readily believe the statement." 



J. C. Van Blarcom, Esq., of St. Louis, who has 

 had a wide and interesting experience with the tarpon, 

 writes me: " On one occasion I was sitting in my 

 boat, about thirty yards, back of a friend who had 

 hooked a tarpon, and at a distance of sixty yards 

 from his boat the tarpon made a leap, which I wit- 

 nessed, and as my friend was holding his rod, which 

 was seven and a half feet long, perpendicularly, I was 

 able to approximate the height of the leap from the 

 fact that from where I sat looking over the point of 

 the rod, the fish made his turn from two to three 

 feet clear above the point. According to my figures 

 this leap was eighteen feet in the air and I do not 

 think I am more than a foot out of the way." 



It should be remembered that these anglers are 

 not callow sportsmen, or green hands, but skilled 

 anglers who have observed the splendid leaps again 

 and again. I have seen a tarpon hanging in the air, 

 parallel to the water, ten or twelve feet, I believe, 

 above it, and coming on at an unknown speed, thrash- 

 ing the steel-like tail to the head and back, to drop 

 into the water with a surge and roar. Again I 



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