Tarpon Fishing in Mexico. 13 



with a sled<^(j hammer, and ahnust dips its point intu the water. 

 The line flies out. but slackens almost immediately. I realise 

 that my fmgers are cut, burnt, and painful ; but am almost too 

 surprised at the incident to re_L(ret that my claim on the bail is 

 undisputed. bLxamination reveals two great dents one on either 

 side, about the middle oi' the solid little fish, just as if it had 

 been put in a vice. " Sabalo," says my boatman, noddin^^ 

 rapidly, and I presume that " Sabalo" is the Mexican for tarpon. 

 I wraj) my handkerchief round m)- left hand, with which I intend 

 to apply as much friction as possible to the line, let out some 

 SO feet and take lono; zii^zaofs across the river towards the sea. 

 During the next hour and a-half I have many touches but do not 

 manage to raise a tarpon. The bait dragged in this way gives a 

 wonderful representation of a disabled mullet making his way slowly 

 and painfully a foot under the surface. It is at the same time 

 very conspicuous as it turns its dazzling sides in every direction. 

 We are now about one mile from the end of the breakwater, and 

 I am fishing away from the sun when once more bang ! bang ! at 

 the rod : I strike as vigorously as my arrangements will allow, and 

 within a second about 15 yards from the boat, up shoots a 7-foot 

 column of silver, which reaches a height at least 6 teet clear of 

 the water. (I) It shakes itself in the air like a huge steel spring, 

 the spray flying from it in all directions, and as the whole of that 

 short line is out of the water, the undulations which the tarpon is 

 sending in quick succession up the line almost shakt! the rod out of 

 my hands. The bait is hurled 100 feet away, and the lish — ijut I 

 hardly regard it as one at the moment — plunges back into its 

 native element with a splash that can be heard for ovt.T half a mile. 



