Tarpon Fishino- m Florida. 71 



some difficulty and find to be .iboiii 250 lbs. 'Vhr calculation for 

 getting- llu- wc'iL^lu of a tarpon by no means applies here, though 

 it probably would with some alteration of the constant. Just 

 after dark we hear some shots from the yacht, which had 

 induced a 13-foot hammerhead shark to swallow halt a tarpon 

 plus an enormous hook. It was afterwards towed ashore and 

 found to conl.iin 35 N'ounj; ones, each a little over a loot long. 

 On another occasi(Mi a 1 7 -foot leopard shark was caught and shot 

 from the yacht. It had six rows of teeth, and its jaws could j)ass 

 over the head and shoulders of a man. 



We are quite ready when Washington summons us for the 

 Hats at 9 o'clock. The temperature is delightful, there is a 

 delicious breeze and not a mosquito in the place. There is no 

 trace of either moon or cloud, and Sirius, Aldebaran, the stars of 

 Orion and their less imposing brethren are as brilliant as 1 h.ive 

 ever seen them. The sea is as I have never seen it. and hardly 

 believed it possible to be before. Our boat for some yards leaves 

 behind it a gradually fading wake of light, and the oars where 

 th('y touch the water stir it to a brilliant jjhosphorescence. I 

 pay out the line, and watch my luminous bait as it gradually 

 recedes from and then follows the boat. But here we are on 

 the edge of a shoal of tarpon. A great fish passes without a 

 sound within 3 feet of the boat, lea\ing behind him .1 watery 

 comet's tail ; then another, and another passes underneath us. 

 antl we are in the thick of them. There is a great luminous 

 column after the bait — bang at the rod, splash as he raises masses 

 of spray which almost dazzle us — a wilil 20-foot rush al<jng the 

 top of the water, and up again with a sound that seems louder in 



