GILL] THE TARPON AND LADY—FISH 39 
1874, declared (in Forest and Stream, 1, p. 324) that it was very 
palatable, but his taste was exceptional. It has been frequently tried 
since but rejected for the table. An effort was made on one or two 
occasions in Massachusetts when considerable numbers had been 
caught, “to find a market for them,” as at New Bedford, ‘ but the 
people did not like them, owing to the toughness. of the flesh.” 
Holder’s negro oarsman aptly replied to the suggestion that it was 
“the finest looking fish in the world,’ “ Yes, Sa, hit looks fine, so 
does hay. I'd rather eat hay dan tarpon, yes, Suh, I would.” It 
is truly, as Holder remarks, almost the only great game fish “ which 
is utterly scorned as a food fish.” Dampier’s opinion, expressed in 
1675, and that of some Barbadians, has not been adopted by modern 
gourmands. It is “full of numerous small bones, which is a great 
inconvenience,’ says Schomburgk. In almost all cases where it has 
given anything like satisfaction the fish was of small size, and the 
truth may be that small ones are tender and savory but large ones 
coarse and tough, like overgrown individuals of other species. The 
results of unprejudiced judgment are still wanting. 
It may be recalled here, however, that the Indian congener of the 
tarpon, the ox-eye (Megalops cyprinoides) is, according to Saville 
Kent as well as others, “highly esteemed for food,” and in the 
Malay archipelago, where it likewise abounds, it is cultivated in 
tanks after the same manner as the milk-fish, Chanos salmoneus. 
Far from being sought by the fisherman for the market, the tarpon 
is detested by him. ‘‘ The Pensacola seine fishermen dread it while 
dragging their seines, for they have known of persons having been 
killed or severely wounded by its leaping against them from the 
seine in which it was enclosed. Even when it does not jump over the 
cork line of the seine, it is quite likely to break through the netting 
before landing.” Nevertheless even a dead tarpon yields some 
compensation for the trouble he gives. There is quite a demand 
for its great beautifully silvered scales, some of which may be as 
large as a lady’s palm. They find customers who are willing to 
pay as high as from five to twenty-five cents apiece and they are 
made up in various ways to attract the winter visitors to Florida. 
IX 
A species congeneric with the tarpon, but not very closely related, 
is the Megalops cyprinoides which, indeed, is the type of the genus. 
It is a less slender fish and the outline of the back and head is dif- 
ferent from that of the tarpon; further, the dorsal fin is not so far 
backward, that fin and the anal have more rays (dorsal, 19 to 21; 
