Tanipico : Sea Fishing and Surf Bathing. 



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one's conscience when describing to 

 admiring- friends its dimensions. "The 

 average man," says the Captain, 

 "measures from head to tail in a 

 straight line, and then lies about the 

 result, which is all wrong. The proper 

 way is to begin at the upper side of the 

 mouth, over the forehead, down the 

 back, under the dorsal fin, behind the 

 candal, under the ventral, and up 

 the belly to the point of beginning, as 

 the surveyors say. By this system, a 

 broad fish shows to as good advantage 

 as a long, slim one," says the Captain. 



When the jetties were under con- 

 struction, he invented his marine circus 

 with aquatic acrobats. The sharks 

 were then plenty, and those few unfor- 

 tunates who fell from the piling into 

 the sea were eagerly and promptly 

 snapped up. The sharks became so 

 tame that whatever was thrown to 

 them from the tugs that could be 

 eaten, found a readj^ market. The 

 Captain heated a brick one day until 

 almost red hot, and then wrapped it up 

 in a piece of woolen cloth soaked in 

 bacon grease, and threw the bundle to 

 a fourteen-foot shark that was swim- 

 ming past a pile-driver. The warm 

 and savorj^ morsel was quickly swal- 

 lowed. When the brick had burned 

 its way through the covering and 

 began burning through the intestines 

 of the shark, the circus opened. The 

 ground and lofty tumbling that ensued 

 was very creditable to an amateur 

 artist. It was the shark's maiden and 

 farew^ell performance all in one, and at 

 its conclusion he retired permanently 

 from the aquatic boards. 



We are under way at last. The 

 swell from the ocean comes rolling up 

 this channel and outside it will make 

 our craft pitch and toss a little. The 

 morning breeze from land to ocean has 



gone down, and the afternoon breeze 

 from ocean to land has not yet sprung 

 up. That three-masted schooner in 

 the offing is waiting for the post 

 meridian gale to make the harbor, and 

 it now lies as idle as a painted ship 

 upon a painted ocean, the gaff topsails 

 and flying jibs lazily flapping with the 

 roll of the sea. 



Some of the ladies are looking a 

 little pale. This ground swell on the 

 shallow gulf is very fetching. I imag- 

 ine that some of them will soon pay 

 their tribute to old Neptune. See that 

 wicked sailor grin at their distress. 

 Those old Romans were a great people 

 and doubtless named their mariners 

 aright, for he must be a very 

 "nauticus" who can laugh at the 

 distress of a fair woman. 



We're going to anchor now in about 

 one hundred and fifty feet of water. 

 A two-pound sinker, three hooks on a 

 wire, and twenty-five fathoms of line 

 are what we'll use. We'll let the sailors 

 bait our hooks. It is not a pleasant 

 task when chunks of raw fish are used. 

 Did you ever see anything like that? — 

 every one pulling in their lines as hard 

 as they can. See the crimson beauties 

 come aboard. That color lasts but a 

 short time when they are out of the 

 water, fading to a dirty red. I think 

 the Judge must have hooked a small 

 shark by the way he tugs at his line. 

 He is getting him to surface, but it is 

 a small one, hardly four feet in length. 

 There comes a line with one snapper 

 and the head of another. A shark bit 

 his body off on the way to the surface. 

 They are making a chowder in the 

 galley that will be hard to beat. A 

 fresh snapper is unequalled among 

 food fishes. 



It seems impossible that this balmy 

 breeze should be a January breeze. It 



