A REMARKABLE CATCH 105 



in its suddenness. A quick-moving cloud appears, 

 coming on and spreading out like the shades of destruc- 

 tion, and like the charge of the Furies it strikes you. 

 That is what has happened to our angler. A second 

 ago he was lazily paying out line inch by inch; now his 

 rod is bending to its limit; the line, taut as a violin 

 string, is hissing through the blue water, and mirabile 

 dictu! towing the launch. From absolute quiet and 

 ease he is hurled into a maelstrom of excitement. 

 That unknown, unseen fish, which may weigh four 

 hundred, or even eight hundred pounds, has headed 

 out to sea for a deeper haunt where the long, snake- 

 like kelp vines coil and writhe in the blue Kuro Shiwo 

 as it sweeps down the island shores. There is some- 

 thing weird in the first stage of hooking this fish; its 

 power is so great, there is such an impossible chance, 

 so heavy a strain, as though the whole bottom were 

 moving away. 



Of course it may be a shark or a big angel-fish; but 

 in a few moments the earmarks of the big bass are 

 evident, and the angler settles down for a long fight. 

 The launch now backs after it at a four- or five-mile- 

 an-hour gait, and the angler with his light rod vainly 

 endeavors to stop it; but as well might he try to stay 

 the tide, for the fish may be of almost any weight; 

 an eight-hundred-pounder, eight or nine feet in length, 

 was once taken in the Gulf of Cahfornia. The line 

 that holds this one will break at just eighteen pounds. 

 An ounce over that, a trifle too much pressure with 

 the soft thumb stall which you use as a brake, a mis- 

 take in judgment, and the game is up. 



But the angler is on the qui vive. The long, steady 

 tow suddenly ends, and like savage blows from the 



