THE GULF COAST OF FLORIDA. 205 



one fore foot sticking out of the water. We left him there as 

 a warning to his kind not to tempt the deadly accuracy of a 

 Stevens rifle. 



As we were now thoroughly sated with this class of sport, 

 we returned home. 



Ever since our arrival here we have been anxious to catch 

 a shark, and after supper that evening we prepared Mr. Webb's 

 shark tackle, which he kindly loaned us, procured several 

 mullet (weighing about two pounds each) for bait, and pro- 

 ceeded to our evening's sport. The tackle consists of a half- 

 inch rope about fifty feet long, a common dog-chain, double, 

 for a leader, and a hook of quarter-inch steel wire bent on a 

 two and a-half inch circle. We cut one of the mullet in two, 

 hooked both pieces on and cast out, first making the line fast 

 to the wharf. We left a coil of the line on the wharf, and 

 sat down near it to chat, and wait for a bite. 



Presently the coil began to move off. I sprang to the 

 line, caught it and pulled, but my pulling made no difference 

 whatever with Mr. Shark. He went on until the line tightened 

 up on the wharf. This brought him to the surface of the 

 water. He made a terrific plunge and got off. I took up 

 the line, put on a new bait and cast again. In a few minutes 

 we had another pull with the same result. During the evening 

 we had seven bites from shark and a thousand or more from 

 sand-flies, but failed in every instance to fasten our fish, 

 owing probably to the mouth of the shark being so hard and 

 bony that it is difficult to make the hook penetrate it. 



About ten o'clock at night we gave up the sport, went 

 home and retired, having first baited our hook carefully and 

 thrown it out in hopes of fastening one during the night. 

 Early the next morning I went to the wharf and found the line 

 standing out taut. I took hold of it eagerly and was 

 delighted to find that I had drawn a prize ; that one of the 



