232 Big Game Fishes 
I believe that they go south or seek the warmer 
waters of the Gulf.” 
As to the spawning habits of the tarpon almost 
nothing is known, and the above information was 
in reply to some questions I propounded, hoping 
to obtain some definite facts. I watched the 
hauling of the seine several years at the Tortugas 
group, but never saw a young tarpon taken, so 
assume that it does not breed at this point. 
Mr. Barton W. Evermann found in his investiga- 
tions among the fishes of Porto Rico, reported to 
the United States Fish Commission, that the fish 
doubtless made this region a spawning-ground. 
He says: “Common about Porto Rico, where it 
evidently breeds, as numerous immature individ- 
uals were taken at Hucares and Fajardo. 
“The four examples are from Hucares, from 
7.5 to 11.5 inches long, and were seined in a 
small, brackish pool of dark-colored water, not 
over 5 feet deep, in the corner of a mangrove 
swamp, and at that time (February) entirely 
separated from the ocean by a narrow strip of 
land scarcely 25 feet wide. The thirteen others 
are nearly all very young, of 2.25 to 3.25 inches, 
collected at Fajardo. No large individuals are 
seen.” 
