INCIDENTS IN TUNA FISHING 61 



I give these particulars of a long play, they being 

 more or less interesting and typical, as showing the 

 gradual breaking down of a man by a fish. Encour- 

 aged by the apparent weakness of the tuna, I bent 

 all my efforts to the reel, and happily brought the 

 fish in, when suddenly it sprang ahead to gain line, 

 turned, and took three hundred feet as easily as it 

 had taken it three hours before — took it, held it, 

 and swam steadily down the coast in the direction 

 of Avalon. 



The boatman kept the oars in the water and tried 

 every reasonable trick to tire it, but the tuna kept on 

 towing us, always stern first. I stopped it several 

 times; it charged us again and again, and took us half 

 a mile offshore, then turned and dragged us stern first 

 into a heavy sea, which threatened to sink us; but 

 by good fortune, which surely was on board, I turned 

 the fish, which now headed to the south to the belt 

 of smooth water. The continual strain on the left 

 arm had brought me to the verge of acknowledging 

 that something would have to be done, but I finally 

 stopped the fish directly opposite Avalon, within a 

 stone's throw of the spot where I had hooked it four 

 hours earlier, its last run being about four miles. I 

 literally made the desperate effort of my life, and 

 brought it to the boat. For the first time we had a 

 perfect view, and saw, what I had suspected, that it 

 was a very large fish. I stood up, taking no chances; 

 and as it swung along the quarter, canted upward, 

 its big hypnotic eye staring out of the blue, the gaff 

 sank into it. The fish gave a semi-leap, hurling the 

 water over us, splintered the gaff pole, and was fifty 

 feet away in a second ; but by sheer good luck I stopped 



