Tbe Leaping Sharks 373 



Texas, and I have taken a similar shark from the 

 beach of Loggerhead Key on the extreme outer 

 reef. In the summer of 1902 I was fishing for 

 tarpon at Aransas, and one day after making 

 several catches I had my boatman row me to the 

 vicinity of some fellow-anglers, hoping to photo- 

 graph a tarpon in mid-air, a feat that has been 

 accomplished by Dr. Howe of Mexico, who at 

 Tampico, the centre of the winter tarpon-fishing, 

 succeeded in inventing a gun camera which ac- 

 complishes this work. While watching the leaps 

 of the fishes, and snapping a kodak at them, gen- 

 erally taking the sky, the sun, and nothing else, I 

 observed a fine leap accompanied by a most 

 energetic thrashing in the air. The fish left the 

 water bodily, and when three feet above the sur- 

 face seemed to lash itself into a perfect curve 

 before it descended, hardly touching the water 

 before it went into the air again. I assumed it 

 to be a very gamy tarpon, perhaps what was 

 known here as "Yucatan Bill," a wily, long, 

 slender tarpon, a " Yucatan bounder " that was 

 supposed to return to this locality every summer 

 for the purpose of amusing itself with certain 

 innocent anglers. The " bounder " had broken 

 lines and rods, shattered chairs, broken oars, 



