ASHORE AT THE WRONG TIME 219 



making a rush that unreels the longest line. But there 

 was no such hysterical play; the launch was under 

 full speed before all the hne was unreeled, and so 

 enabled the angler to press his thumb brake or stall 

 upon the thread-like line and slowly bring the fish 

 down, stop the reel, and accomplish that miracle of 

 angling — the towing of a boat by a threadlike line. 



To see a one-hundred-and-eighty-pound tuna, six 

 feet long, tow about a boat with two men for four 

 hours, by a twenty-one-thread line with a breaking 

 strain tested to forty-two pounds, is seemingly the im- 

 possible, but it is not uncommon in tuna-fishing 

 after the boat has been gotten under way. For a 

 tuna to start a boat with such a line would be im- 

 possible, but once under way, either by oars or 

 engine, it is an easy matter. A single man cannot 

 start a car on a track, but after it is started he can 

 push it for miles. 



The tuna swam on, boring away on the surface. 

 The launch steamed after it, the angler reeling when 

 he could ; now losing ten or twenty feet as the splendid 

 fish gained. Keyed up to the highest pitch of excite- 

 ment, the angler sat holding the light rod, which 

 trembled and bent to the danger-point under the fierce 

 rushes; now feeling that he had the advantage, now in 

 despair as the fish plunged down into the blue water, 

 yet all the while he was working to bring it up. He 

 watched intently for the gleam of gold and silver, then 

 reeled with all his strength as the great game came 

 surging up out of the depth to course along the sur- 

 face again, gleaming in golden glints as the sun struck 

 it, to swerve to right or left, as fear suggested, to be 

 fought at last to a standstill by the delicate Hne. 



