Tarpon Fishing in Mexico. 17 



has a lofty contempt for these mad Englishmen who can take so 

 much trouble to catch a hsh which is such poor eatin^^. We are 

 soon on the river aj^ain, and immediately we leave the shallow 

 water I am into a fish. I strike as if I was trying to break 

 something, and do my best to drive the hook home in some 

 comparatively soft part of his huge mouth. The tarpon has no 

 teeth, or to be accurate his tongue and palate are covered with 

 minute villiform teeth, but they merely amount to a certain 

 roughness. He has two long rough bony plates one on either 

 side of the roof of his mouth, running parallel with his length. 

 In a 6-feet tarpon these would be about 4 inches long by i .^ inches 

 broad. He has also under the tongue, two more long bony plates 

 which are peculiar to his species, so it is not difficult to understand 

 why he often gets rid of the hook. After an hour's leaping, 

 rushing, and pumping, my reel falls off. I had omitted to lash 

 it on, a precaution which is very little trouble and never a 

 disadvantage. I do my best to arrange a truce with mine enemy, 

 who fortunately is not averse to a few moments of comparative 

 quiet, during which I recover the reel and make it firm enough to 

 last out this contest. After another hour's fi^rht, I land in a small 

 sandy bay, but find that 1 have once more miscalculated the 

 strength of the fish, who steadily sails out again, towards some posts 

 sticking up in the water. But worse — he rounds a promontory, 

 and I am more than afraid that my line will be caught or cut, as it 

 rubs over the boulders. I leave it as slack as possible and yell for 

 the boat, which is prepared in a very leisurely manner by my 

 boatman. 



We re-embark and manage to get the line clear of the rocks 



B 



