T H E T A R P O X 19 



ing. I used my fly rod with, dry fly, small spinner 

 and small pieces of cut bait and succeeded in 

 catching several but found them hard to hook. A 

 few years ago while fishing for bass with, artificial 

 bait in, the headwaters of North Eiver which flows 

 into White Water Bay a tarpon perhaps five feet 

 long struck my bait and carried it with a goodly 

 portion of my line away with him, which proves 

 that at times they like fresh water. 7 ' 

 Mr. Frank Gray Griswold, in his beautifully printed 

 volumes entitled "Sport on Land and Water" (pri- 

 vately printed) calls attention to the fact that while 

 tarpon are in rivers and not in motion they lie upon 

 the bottom, coming to the surface at intervals for a 

 mouthful of air which comes up in bubbles for some 

 time after they have again retired to the bottom. A 

 very small tarpon which he caught in a net and placed 

 in a tub of water did the same thing. He has searched 

 about twenty Cuban rivers for tarpon, finding them in 

 only five, viz. : 



Zaraguanacan (north coast), 

 Jatibonico (south coast), 

 Bio Negro " " 

 Damuji " " 



Los Angeles (Isle of Pines). 



He has observed that the fish move up and down 

 with the tide in schools of twenty or more, and that 

 small fish seem to remain for several years in brack- 

 ish waters before going to sea. Pish of from three 

 to five pounds are plentiful in these Cuban rivers. He 

 makes the interesting observation that they do not 



