FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 147 



3. By breaking or corkscrewing the iiook. 

 4' By breaking the line, owing to — 



a. Its deterioration. 



b. Fouling by overrunning of the reel. 



c. Tangling of something by the reel handle. 



d. Too severe application of brake or reel handle. 



5. By breaking the snell. 



6. By breaking the rod, generally in the tip, but some- 



times in the butt. 



7. By carelessness of the boatman in gaffing. 



8. By attack of a shark. 



To this list of the causes of failure, which is 

 categorical enough to have pleased the late Mr 

 Gladstone^ two addenda may be suggested, both of 

 them sub-sections of No. 4. The first is that of a 

 kingfish cutting the line by dashing at the bait 

 blown up it by the tarpon ; the second is the 

 possibility of an inferior line insufficiently tested 

 before leaving the works. I have known one 

 absolutely new line utterly fail. 



It will be seen from a glance at the foregoing 

 analysis that the tackle is quite as much to blame 

 (in I, 3, 5 and 6) as the fisherman, and indeed only 

 in two cases (2 and 4) is the angler wholly responsible 

 for disaster. No. 2 occurs mostly when the fish is 

 reeled close to the beach. On sunny days, when 

 the white sand shows conspicuous, the tarpon, 

 seeing danger in the gleam of sand, is apt to take 

 alarm and sheer wildly to right and left, thus 

 making a longer wound, from which the hook is 

 liable to fall out. The only remedy is to get the 

 fish to the gaff as soon as possible, and here again 

 muscle tells. 



Nos. 3 and 5 would be wholly the fault of the 

 tackle, for not Hercules himself, I imagine, could 



