92 Recreations of a Sportsman 



stream, with not the same volume, was directed 

 at us every time we lifted the mouth of the fish 

 above the surface. 



Having accomplished the brief study of the 

 animal we towed it several hundred feet out 

 into the bay. It was fascinating to see the docil- 

 ity and good sense of this giant that had evi- 

 dently in a way realized that it was caught, and 

 so accepted the inevitable; at least this is what 

 some enthusiastic people believed. When we 

 cast off the fish it swam slowly away, taking 

 the exact position we had first observed; its 

 dorsal fin several feet above the surface, swaying 

 from side to side with a rhythm suggestive of 

 strength and power. We headed it out to sea, 

 and as it turned toward land we had but to 

 keep our boat ten feet behind, and row to that 

 side when it would turn out again. 



We drove this giant out into the open sea and 

 to liberty and safety with the ease and direct- 

 ness with which a boy drives a cow to pasture. 

 As the fish reached blue water its speed became 

 accelerated and it descended four feet until it 

 was entirely submerged, and it was then that 

 it afforded the most satisfactory exhibition of 

 its movements. The water was as clear as 

 crystal, the sun overhead, and in the splendid 

 sapphire-blue the fish stood out as a colossal 

 discordant element, a veritable freak of animate 

 creation. Even the fishes gazed at it in astonish- 



