TARPON.
Tfrismt Fishing in Zieziso and Florida. By E. G. S. Churchill. (Harrison and Sons. 10s. 6d. net.)—We imagine that most an glens Would like to have a tarpon stuffed and mounted in a glass case. It is a misfortune that the king of sport-giving fish should be of little use for anything else when he is caught. Mr. Churchill's book contains very clear and practical directions where to go and how to fish. Much has of course been written about the tarpon, especially by American sportsmen, but we do not know of any English book with more useful hints, a better description of the sport, or a more detailed estimate of expenses. No one hence- forth is likely to start from these shores upon a tarpon-fishing expedition without reading and digesting Mr. Churchill's record of his experiences. Mr. Churchill caught his first tarpon at Tampico, on the Gulf of Mexico. Here there is a hotel kept by "an ardent tarpon fisherman of American extraction,” who supplies everything needful. The tides at Tampico do not affect the fishing as they did at Punta Gorda, on the west coast of Florida, which Mr. Churchill subsequently visited. Moreover, the sport at Tampico is better ; and it is a more civilised and a more accessible spot. The shortest route, and most expensive, is to go to New York, and thence by rail, which means five days in the train. Or one can get a ticket from Liverpool to Tampico by the Leyland line, which costs £25. The journey takes twenty- seven days. As to cost: boat, boatman, and baits should come to about ten shillings a day ; 'but these charges are going up by leaps and bounds ; board and lodging at the hotel can be got for about ten shillings a day. This is not excessive. But in Florida the tarpon-fisher is looked on as a living gold- mine; and the Britisher who does not want to be cheated and fleeced must be on his guard. The best season at Tampico is from January to April. The energy and jumping-power of a two- hundred-pound tarpon are indescribable. Mr. Churchill's book is illustrated with a great number of small photographs, which are fairly successful in showing the attitudes of the leaping fish soul the places where they are caught. But nothing, except actual experience, can enable the reader to picture the splash and the silver of a tarpon when he clears the water, nor to imagine the sensation of playing a fish six feet long with a little greenheart rod and two hundred yards of thirty-ply line. Mr. Churchill's descriptions are vividly written; and he tells in vigorous language how the bait is seized,—the rod bends as though struck by a sledgehammer, the line flies out, and the fish, looking like a column of silver, jumps high into the air shaking itself like a huge steel spring and scattering spray in every direction. Roach- fishing must seem very poor sport after this. Of the many tarpon that take the bait few are landed; and when a really big one breaks away we may well exclaim: Eheu miserrimus piscator !"
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