34 Tarpon Fishing in Mexico. 



themselves, and are easily recognised by the black spots on their 

 wings. The thorax and abdomen are in the same straight line, 

 and when sittino- on a wall their bodies are inclined at a 

 considerable angle to the vertical, occasionally almost reaching a 

 horizontal position. The bacillus which they sometimes carry 

 will never have any chance with anyone who takes fifteen grains 

 of chloride of quinine every seventh and eighth day : but I do 

 not wish to imply that this is in any way necessary. During my 

 stay at Tampico I was never troubled with any flying insects 

 while fishing. 



On my return to Mexico City I was very surprised to find 

 myself accused in the English paper published there of being a 

 sportsman who had landed two tarpon at once on the same line. 

 It was suggested that this had occurred through my bait wriggling 

 its way up the line, from fear of an approaching tarpon, only to 

 meet its fate in the jaws of another. Talk of the efficiency of the 

 Russian secret police, — why, I would back the American corre- 

 spondent to discover any events which might be of interest to his 

 readers (the gaps, however large, being filled in by his fertile 

 imacrination) loner before the Russian aoent dreamt that there was 

 anything to discover. And what the American correspondent 

 cannot discover, he invents. Some time ago, celebrities did not 

 always grant interviews to these enterprising newsagents, but they 

 found the next morning that they had been interviewed all the 

 same, and that the statements attributed to them were often far 

 more inconvenient than the interview itself would have been. 

 Now they all bow to the inevitable. 



But doubtless even the reader has had and will have his 



