46 THETARPON 



The news crossed the Atlantic and the London 

 Observer of August 26, 1886, had this to say : 



"Here, at last, there is a rival to the black bass 

 of North America, to the Siluris glanis of the 

 Danube, to our own European salmon, and pos- 

 sibly even to the sturgeon, were that monster 

 capable of taking a hook and holding it in its leech- 

 like sucker of a mouth. Sportsmen may go to 

 Florida for the tarpon, as they now go to the 

 Arctic Zone for the reindeer, walrus and musk- 

 ox. " 



In the Forest and Stream of January 9, 1890, Dr. 

 Henshall, in the course of an article descriptive of 

 Floridian fishes says: 



"The tarpon has achieved notoriety as a game 

 fish within the past five or six years, principally 

 through the writings of Dr. C. J. Kenworthy; and 

 Mr. W. H. Wood has received credit generally of 

 killing the first tarpoji of over 100 pounds with 

 rod and reel in March, 1885; but justice compels 

 me to state that the first event of this kind oc- 

 curred in the winter of 1880-81 when Samuel H. 

 Jones of Philadelphia killed a tarpon of 170 

 pounds on ordinary heavy striped bass tackle in 

 the Fort Pierce channel of Indian River Inlet on 

 tLe East Coast of Florida. I was in this locality 

 the winter following this feat and learned the full 

 particulars of this extraordinary performance 

 from Mr. Thomas Paine (son of Judge Paine of 

 Fort Capron), who was Mr. Jones' boatman on 

 the occasion referred to. Afterwards I received 



