Fishing in the Air 69 



gorgeous living sunburst away, an animated aeroplane, 

 which seemed to fly, but merely soared. 



My rod was in the dinghy ; indeed, I had undertaken the 

 adventure to fish in these radiant rivers, to see what could 

 be taken beneath this hanging, drifting garden, knowing 

 that among the possibilities were dolphin, bonito or amber 

 jack. But the flying gurnard opened up a new field, and 

 drifting quietly, I baited a small hook with a diminutive 

 green-coated crab. I cast thirty feet into the stream, and 

 waited, intending to hook a flier, and as he rose from the 

 water to play him, as it were, as he ascended. 



A strike came, and a blaze of red went coursing along 

 the surface, but not out of it, and the line parted. Again I 

 tried, hoping to play my fish in the air, but either the little 

 river was too narrow, or I frightened them ; in any event, I 

 failed. So far as I know, Moseley, the English naturalist, 

 is the only angler who has played his fish on the wing. He 

 hooked a large gurnard or sea-robin, which plunged down, 

 making the little reel scream, then went whirling into the 

 air, in a long flight, taking line from the buzzing reel, to 

 drop with a splash and go up again — a splendid spectacle 

 with its red, blue and yellow flashes of color. This fish 

 story may have the ear-marks of Munchausen, yet it is 

 surely true. 



Though not successful with the gurnards, I have often 

 played other fishes in the air, and in the case of the tarpon, 

 I have had time in seconds to try my luck at tripping the 

 slashing, sparkling, animated mass of silver, as it literally 

 climbed into the empyrean and danced in midair. When 

 a tarpon can make a lateral leap of thirty feet, five feet in 

 air, and take twelve leaps in succession, each eight or ten 

 feet in height, one has ample time for the diversion of play- 

 ing it, as it flies. 



On the Florida reef there are myriads of garfishes, whose 

 walk in life is entirely on the surface. Long, slender, nee- 

 dle-like, they lie, often motionless, their long teeth-lined 



