Tarpon Fishing m T^^loricla. 63 



moon's reflected light on the water, up rises the hii^e dark back 

 of a shark. He is making, calmly as a snake for a fascinated 

 rabbit, antl inexorably as fate, for nn- luckl(^ss tarpon. Whew ! 

 but I am not at all prepared to do battle with that brute. He is 

 considerably longer than the boat, and would certainly take the 

 whole of mv lino if not the rod as well; and after all the boat 

 itself is only half an inch or so thick. I immediately release all the 

 brakes, and give my tarpon as fair a chance as 1 can. He 

 summons up energy for another rush. I cannot any longer see 

 the shark, but as the line flows out I can very vividly imagine the 

 desperate race going on a few feet beneath the surface, and am 

 fully prepared for a pull on my line as if I had hitched on to a 

 runaway locomotive. 



The tarpon is now 40 feet from the boat — I feel the slightest 

 jerk, and the line is slack ; there; are two great swirls in the water, 

 and then the silvery ripples are calm and peaceful as before. 

 Somewhat relieved, I reel up and hnd that the piano wire has been 

 cleanly cut a foot from the hook. The severed end is curled round, 

 much like a piece of wire that has been cut by a small bore bullet. 

 The edL^es of the teeth of these large sharks arc like fine saws, or 

 the edsfes of a laree triangular file, and there is not much doubt as 

 to how this wire was so fjuickly and so easily severed. Now 

 tarpon hooks are not particularly wholesome f<jod even for sharks, 

 and I think it more than probable that my tarpon will be avenged 

 by the instrument that caused his death. My guide has not at all 

 appreciated the incident, especially as we are now some way from 

 the other boats ; and none of our boatmen cared to go out alone 

 at night on the flats. After all they were not entirely un 



