File:Outing (1885) (14796495203).jpg

Identifier: outing58newy (find matches)
Title: Outing
Year: 1885 (1880s)
Authors:
Subjects: Leisure Sports Travel
Publisher: (New York : Outing Pub. Co.)
Contributing Library: Tisch Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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esntapply it. To him tarpon fishing is aspecialized sport, and he has paid hisoutfitter roundly for the conventionaltools. To think now for himselfwould be as futile as exploring thefourth dimension, or butting againstsyndicated government and standardizedgraft. There is much sport in conventionaltarpon fishing, but it is the joy of theoutdoors, the pleasure of scenery andsurroundings, and the picturesque fightagainst fate which the tarpon puts up.The sportsman in his cushioned revolv-ing chair does nothing that a properlyconstructed wooden man couldnt do aswell, and any good mechanic could de-vise a combination of cogs and springsthat would beat him out of sight. But the machine that hunts with aharpoon must be a machine that thinks.The hunter who successfully stalks adeer through the forest, or drops himin the open with his rifle at two hun-dred yards, seldom sits by a runwaywhile hounds run the quarry to him.The sportsman who can cut down theflushed partridge with his first barrel.
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398 THE OUTING MAGAZINE scorns to snare the creature. The dif-ference in skill required between stalk-ing and hounding a deer is great; be-tween snap-shooting and snaring apartridge it is greater; but between suc-cessfully hunting a tarpon with a har-poon and catching it with rod and reelit is greatest. The harpoon which I prefer is onlyfive inches long, including the socket inwhich the pole is thrust. It is a plain,pointed shaft, of quarter-inch steel witha single barb, an inch from the point.The harpoon pole is twelve feet longand one inch in diameter. A soft cot-ton line a hundred yards long and aneighth of an inch in diameter completesthe outfit. One end of the line isfastened to a small, shallow tub inwhich it is loosely dropped, not coiled,while the other end is made fast to theharpoon. In tarpon hunting the tub isplaced in the bow of the skiff, or canoe,in which the sportsman stands. Every inch gained in height is a dis-tinct advantage, and it is best for thehunter to place his

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