CHAPTER XXVI 



THE LEAPING SHARKS 



" Toward the sea turning my troubled eye 

 I saw the fish (if fish I may it cleepe) 

 That makes the sea before his face to flye." 



SPENSER. 



IT requires more than ordinary temerity with 

 an audience of anglers, to admit, even by infer- 

 ence, the shark to the select and honorable com- 

 pany of game fishes. I do not propose to commit 

 this possible solecism, but merely to describe the 

 play and action under restraint, of several sharks 

 which I have caught, and others which I have 

 seen caught, and leave the question, game or 

 vermin ? to the reader. 



It has so happened that I have passed many 

 seasons, winter and summer, in what might be 

 termed "shark countries," that is, localities 

 where the shark was always a factor to be consid- 

 ered. If a tarpon was played long enough to 

 permit its blood to tint the water and reach away, 



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