406 
ORDERS OF FISHES— TROUT AND SALMON 
ties that have made the ouananiche famous. 
This species bears to Atlantic salmon and the 
ouananiche so close a resemblance that it is yet 
an open question whether the three species 
should not be merged into one ( Salmo salar). 
At all events, a picture of the Sebago Salmon 
might easily, under other names, be made to do 
duty in representing the other two ! 
The Tarpon 1 is one of the very few large 
fishes to which it is proper to apply the word 
magnificent. Either in the water or out, or 
hanging upon the wall of a dining-room, it is as 
its pet name implies, a Silver King, entitled to 
royal honors. Its enormous scales, its back of 
royal blue and sides of burnished silver proclaim 
it at a glance, and in the presence of such 
external splendor we cease to care whether its 
flesh is savory or not. How the Romans would 
have doted upon this fish, had they but lived 
within its realm ! 
To-day it is beloved of every American sports- 
man who can get in touch with it, first because of 
its imposing personality, and next because of the 
difficulty in catching it with hook and line. It 
is taken by rod-and-reel fishing in lagoons, and 
also by trolling in “the passes” between islands. 
1 Tar'pon at-lan'ti-cus. 
Its flesh is excellent, and will always hold its 
place in the markets of the South. 
In cruising around the coast of Florida, you 
first see the Tarpon breaking water, back in air, 
like an undulating porpoise. You may see fifty 
of them, and sail and fish for days before you 
catch one; but one big Silver King pays for a 
long journey, and ten days of cruising. 
Twenty-five years ago, no one attempted to 
catch a 100-pound Tarpon with rod, reel and line 
of light weight. To-day, angling for this grand 
creature has become an established recreation, 
and on the Florida coast is regularly pursued as 
such at Fort Myers, Punta Rassa, Boca Grande 
Pass, Marco, and Bahia Honda, on the adjacent 
coast of Cuba. Besides the above, Corpus 
Christi, Texas, and Tampico, Mexico, have be- 
come famous as resorts for Tarpon fishermen. 
The size of this fish is entirely satisfactory. 
Usually its weight is between 100 and 200 pounds, 
but it is credited with a maximum record of 383. 
Specimens six feet long are by no means rare. 
So far as known on January 1, 1904, the cham- 
pionship of Tarpon angling was then held by Mr. 
Edward vom Hofe of New York, with a fish of 
210 pounds weight, a length of 6 feet 11 inches, 
and a girth measurement of 45 inches. Its larg- 
