A Great Fighter 185 



on the Californiaii coast, and afford perhaps the acme 

 of angling sport, testing the angler to the extreme 

 limit of his endurance. But I never heard of one 

 larger than eight hundred pounds' weight being caught 

 there. In the deep sea, as far as my experience and 

 information go, they are seldom seen larger than say 

 a quarter of a ton, but that is perhaps because the 

 largest specimens do not consort with ships as the 

 ordinary sized ones do. 



The largest one I ever had intimate acquaintance 

 with was in Carlisle Bay, Barbadces, where I was 

 fishing for flying-fish in one of the locally owned craft. 

 We had been most busily employed baling up the 

 swarming Exocetae, and had between two and three 

 thousand of them in the boat, when there was a blaze 

 as of silver sheet lightning in the water, followed by a 

 swiftly passing shadow, and the water was absolutely 

 void of fish where a moment before there had been 

 millions. The skipper of the boat, knowing well the 

 cause of this sudden flight, snatched up a stout line 

 that lay ready coiled on the after-thwart, impaled 

 a flying-fish on the big hook, and, tossing it overboard, 

 gave the boat a sheer off the light air that was just 

 ruffling the surface, and we began to gather a little 

 way, the line streaming astern. Hardly a minute 

 had elapsed before there was a yell from the helms- 

 man, and looking aft we saw the line taut as a harp- 

 string. The boat began to move astern against the 

 wind, and we all tailed on to the line. But as we 

 could not get an inch of it, we led it to the bow and 

 secured it there, in order that our fish might tow us 

 properly. We had no fears for either line or hook. 

 So for an hour that big mackerel towed our ten-ton 

 sloop whither he would, winding up his tremendous 

 exertions by a splendid fighting end in the middle 



