GILL] THE TARPON AND LADY—FISH 35 
and oblong by reason of the very oblique mouth, the lower jaw is 
abbreviated, truncated in front, and with the articular fosse under 
the eyes, and the suspensoria are each continuous, the hyomandibulars 
being inclined forwards. 
Two very distinct forms are known—so distinct indeed that they 
have been referred to different genera—the Megalops cyprinoides 
of the Indian Ocean and northern Australia and the Megalops 
atlanticus or celebrated tarpon of America. 
The tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) has an elongated fusiform 
shape ; the forehead slightly incurved (rather than straight) to the 
snout; the chin projects and is obliquely truncated ; the dorsal (with 
‘twelve rays) is on the posterior half of the body, nearly midway 
between the ventrals and anal; its free margin is very sloping and 
incurved and its long hind ray reaches nearly to the vertical of the 
anal; the anal (with twenty rays) is about twice as long as the 
dorsal and falciform; the caudal fin has a very wide V-shaped 
emargination. The scales are in about forty-two oblique rows. It 
reaches a length of about six feet—sometimes more. 
IV 
The oldest form of the name seems to have been Tarpon; such 
is the guise it has in Dampier’s “ Voyages to the Bay of Cam- 
peachy” in 1675, and in Roman’s “Concise Natural History of 
Florida” (1775). Dampier found that “the fish which they take 
near the shore with their nets are snooks, dog-fish and sometimes 
tarpon. The tarpon,” he says, “is a large scaly fish, shaped much 
like a salmon, but somewhat flatter. *Tis of a dull silver color, with 
scales as big as a half crown. A large tarpon will weight 25 or 30 
pounds. ’Tis good, sweet, wholesome meat, and the flesh solid and 
firm. In its belly you shall find two large scallops of fat, weighing 
two or three pounds each. I never,” continues Dampier, “* knew any 
taken with hook or line; but are either with nets, or by striking 
them with harpoons, at which the Moskito-men are very .expert.” 
Such are the ideas of the fish gained by Dampier in its southern 
resorts. How different they are from those now prevalent in the 
United States will appear hereafter. 
The name in most general use is tarpon and this may be con- 
sidered to be the literary and accepted phase. Tarpum was also 
an early form, but is now obsolete. Along the Texan coast Savanilla 
is still in general use, but is gradually being superseded by tarpon 
on account of the influence of anglers. The apt descriptive name 
Grande-écaille (pronounced grandykye and meaning large-scale) was 
