1 62 Recreations of a Sportsman 



game is long and slender, while the big or long 

 sharks of Florida often have enormous bulk and 

 are able to swim away with a large and heavy 

 boat. 



On one occasion I hooked a shark, which was 

 at least fifteen feet long, in a little channel on 

 the Florida reef. In some way, purely ac- 

 cidental, the fish headed up the shallow lagoon, 

 instead of going out the channel. It took all 

 the line with a rush; and when the end came, 

 to which an oar was hastily tied, it jerked the 

 boat ahead, and as my companion and I rose to 

 shift the line, it jerked us both overboard in 

 water waist-deep. We lay back and allowed the 

 shark to tow us, prodded our feet into the sand, 

 presenting the greatest possible resistance; but 

 that shark towed us about much after the fashion 

 of a tug. It shot around in a circle, became 

 utterly confused and frantic, and on one of the 

 turns we picked up the boat, leaped in, and away 

 we went, headed for the reef. Not once did we 

 make a foot, as we tried to haul in the shark; 

 our every pull gave it new life, and it headed for 

 the barrier reef like a Kentucky hunter at a 

 hurdle. 



The reef was well covered with water, there 

 being about two feet, rising to three when waves 

 went over it. We had time to make the line 

 fast to a thwart and to take an oar each and 

 pull against this shark; but we might as well 



