268 Big Game Fishes 
head at a difficult gaffing and strike at or down 
upon a fish, and so cut the line—a crime of 
sinister character, for which the code provides no 
adequate punishment, especially after a fish has 
been played for several hours. 
One of the charms of tarpon, as well as tuna, 
angling is that it is preéminently a social pas- 
time. Often fifteen or twenty boats are grouped 
within hailing or signalling distance, and the man 
who has no strikes is regaled with the vaulting 
fish of more fortunate anglers, and the sight of 
four or five tarpons in the air at once is a most 
exhilarating scene; yet Byron in “Don Juan” 
refers to angling as a solitary vice. 
“. ,. . angling, too, that solitary vice, 
Whatever Izaak Walton sings or says ; 
The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet 
Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it.” 
There were many delights which did not enter 
the soul of the great poet, almost the only man 
of distinction to denounce angling. Yet we may 
pardon him, as he appears to except the tuna and 
would probably commend the tarpon had he 
known this noble fish. His honest dislike for 
angling is well worth quoting, and in a note to 
