2 2 Tarpon Fishing in Mexico. 



so I was able to take this photograph at a distance of about 

 20 yards. (VI lis.) We embark, and the fish are striking even 

 more rapidly than yesterday. It is never more than a few minutes 

 after I have got out my regulation 60 feet of line, before I have a 

 strike, and my bait is often attacked before. To-day I have taken 

 the precaution to bring out a thick buckskin glove for my left 

 hand, and I have also sewn a stout piece of leather on to one of 

 the cross bars in the circumference of the reel. The tarpon 

 fisherman always fishes with his reel uppermost, and the handle 

 to the right ; so that a powerful break can be applied by 

 pressing a piece of leather, secured as described, with the thumb 

 on the line, which is still on the drum of the reel. The line soon 

 cuts a hole in the finger of my glove, and by the end of the day 

 the fingers are only represented by a few shreds ; but this is a 

 trifie. A much more serious circumstance is that my line, which 

 is only twenty-seven ply, and a poor one at that, seems to have 

 suffered from the strains and the soaking of yesterday, and breaks 

 three or four times. In spite of these disasters I manage to force 

 the unconditional surrender of four tarpon (IXs) ; but none of 

 these are over 7 feet long. Since yesterday I have become 

 ambitious and will not think of keeping anything under that length, 

 so I take a memento of two or three scales from each of my 

 captives, and bid them adieu with the hope that they may live to 

 fight again another day. Once more my line breaks, and 

 my last hook is gone. There is still an hour's fishing, and 

 I have five or six mullet left ; so I pass the end of the line 

 through the mouth and gills of one of these, and drag it 

 some 20 yards behind the boat. They are tough little fish, 



