66 Tarpon Fishing in Florida. 



bends like a bow ; but the tip remains absolutely stationary. 

 After five or ten minutes the fish again takes the initiative. Out 

 slowly goes the line, my puny efforts having not the slightest 

 effect on either his velocity or direction. He doubtless wishes to 

 discover whether this curious force possessed by his last captive will 

 follow him to his deeper den. Down he goes, and the line, which 

 is as tight as I dare make it, communicates to the rod a series ot 

 ominous little jerks and thrills as it rubs on the edge of some 

 submarine precipice. It is soon cut, and there has been no 

 surrender. I have been defeated in fair fight. 



Within a quarter of an hour I am playing a tarpon ; a grand 

 fighter, and my camera is forgotten for the first fifteen minutes ; 

 but this tackle is heavy and the fish has been making tremendous 

 exertions. At his fifth leap he fails to get clear of the water. 

 (XVIII.) I manage to get him to rise three or four times close to 

 the boat, and attempt to perpetuate his memory with my Anschutz. 

 He now sinks back on his side like a stricken warrior whose body 

 alone is defeated (XIX), and no great stretch of the imagination is 

 required to detect something very like a groan. I wish I could 

 persuade him that I am as anxious to set him free as he is to regain 

 his freedom, and that even the Black Prince could not outdo me in 

 courtesy to my captive, for whom I have a great respect. But he 

 knows no law save that of vae viciis,- and so continues to waste 

 his energies in trying to avoid a would-be benefactor, when as 

 the result he may not have sufficient strength to escape the 

 inexorable shark. A shark would no more think of molesting a 

 tarpon in full enjoyment of his wonderful powers in the open, 

 than would a crocodile of starting on a stern chase after a grey- 



