58 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



of jelly-fishes — the fairy Beroe, the pellucid Cassio- 

 pea, the lavender Rhizostoma, the Circe, the Geryon, 

 the Tima, and others — cut by the knife-like line. 

 The ocean was filled with these fairy craft, through 

 which the tuna was rushing down the slopes of this 

 mountain of the sea. 



The launch was moving at half speed astern to give 

 me a chance to stop the game, but it seemed impos- 

 sible. Too much effort would have broken the line, 

 which was tested to a dead pull of but forty-two pounds, 

 and when the bursts of speed came the pressure had to 

 be decreased, changing the cry of the stricken reel. 

 Now the tip of the rod would be jerked violently 

 down, always bent; now trembling, telling that the 

 game was shaking its head in an attempt to throw 

 out the bait. Four hundred feet had gone — I knew 

 it, as the line was marked with red silk at every fifty 

 feet, and I had seen eight flashes of crimson melt into 

 the blue. Another span went out to the grinding 

 zee-e-ee-e-e-e-e of the reel, and there was but twenty- 

 five feet more on the spool; the occasion demanded a 

 special effort, and I called on that line and rod as 

 you and I have called on a good horse in a hard cross- 

 country run after the hounds. Will it respond? The 

 ze-e-e-e is grinding out its notes, and becomes a groan; 

 the leather pad is worn through an eighth of an inch, 

 the rod bends to the danger point — saints of Bath- 

 bara protect us ! and — 



"You've got him, sir," comes a whisper over my 

 shoulder from the boatman. 



I had stopped the running line, held it hard, and 

 witnessed that always recurring miracle in tuna fishing, 

 — one which some anglers who have not witnessed it 



