102 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



of their slain comrade, and a terrible battle ensued. 

 Such swift action, such ferocity, such unparalleled 

 instinct to kill and eat I But this was a tropic sea, 

 with water at eighty-five degrees, where life is so in- 

 tensely developed. Slowly that yellow, flashing, 

 churning mass of sharks faded into the green 

 depths." 



Again Zane Grey writes from Darwin Bay, 

 Tower Island, after hooking a huge shark: "Then 

 the fun began. It really was not fun, but work un- 

 der a hot sun, in a bobbing boat, with thundering 

 surf always threateningly near at hand, and most 

 unforgettable of all, with a school of huge black 

 sharks following the one I had on. When I got 

 the double line over the reel I kept it there, and 

 as a consequence had the shark in sight all the 

 time. His comrades glided between him and me, 

 bumped the boat with their tails, and acted in every 

 way to convince a reasonable angler of their dan- 

 gerous mood. They were undoubtedly man-eating 

 sharks. If R. C. had not been in sight and within 

 call I never would have risked my life in that 

 cockleshell of a launch, amidst a swarm of ravenous 

 wolves of the sea. At length this one, like the 

 other two, broke my leader, demonstrating fully 

 that this especial kind of copper wire was useless 

 for fishing." 



Now Mr. Grey is probably the foremost big- 

 game fisherman of the world, and knows more of 

 the habits of these fish from the sportsman's angle 

 than any of his fellow human beings. Under the 

 circumstances that he describes, few men, certainly 



