Experiments in Sea Angling 165 



and a twenty-one or twenty-four-thread line, an 

 abundance of it on a big, well-made reel. Every 

 season such huge creatures are hooked by anglers 

 trolling for tuna or fishing for black sea-bass. 

 At the strike they take several hundred feet of 

 line, the angler jamming on the thumb brake 

 with all his strength; and if the boatman gets 

 headway on the launch and backs after it, the 

 line can often be saved and the fish played; but 

 generally it is a fight for several hours until 

 the shark is worn out, when it is slowly and 

 carefully brought to gaff. 



The playing and handling of so large a fish 

 require such constant care that few anglers care 

 for it. The slightest overstrain on the delicate 

 line, overpressure on the thumb brake, or a coil 

 about the tip, and the rod is gone, while the 

 repeated rushes of the game, and its remarkable 

 display of strength, are a constant strain upon 

 the angler, who often is unnerved at the extra- 

 ordinary actions of the game, which in one in- 

 stance, I know, seized the boat and almost 

 crushed it, so alarming the occupants that they 

 cut the line. 



During the summer of 1906 I was for several 

 days at anchor on a yacht in the small harbor 

 of San Clemente one of the outermost islands 

 of Southern California, belonging to the Govern- 

 ment a most desolate spot, the last of a great 

 volcano or outburst that at one time doubtless 



