Big Game at Sea 



to a steel cap which fitted closely upon a long, pliable 

 yellow pine handle. The barbs of the points were 

 movable; when they entered a fish they closed, but 

 when the slightest strain came they opened and pre- 

 vented the harpoon from tearing out. A stout line 

 or rope was made fast to the grains and led up the 

 pole, and three hundred feet of it coiled forward in 

 a large half barrel. Beside this I had a sharp coral 

 chisel to use as a lance in case of necessity. Thus 

 equipped, we were ready for almost any game, at 

 least of the sea. 



The early mornings were usually ushered in by 

 transformation scenes of splendid possibilities 

 staged in the heavens and this was no exception. 

 Long before the sun appeared the east was a mass 

 of crimson clouds ; first deep, dark and ominous, grad- 

 ually increasing in brilliancy, color and tint, until the 

 sun burst forth in all his splendor. 



We soon reached the spot where we had heard the 

 thundering of the sea-bat the preceding night, but 

 the lagoon was apparently deserted. Chief suggest- 

 ing that the fish did not come so far up until full 

 flood tide, we turned and rowed to the south, parallel 

 to the great fringing reef against whose sunken coral 

 rocks the surf broke sullenly. Long Key a sandy 

 spit since destroyed by a hurricane Bush Key and 

 the long fringing reef two or three miles in length, 

 formed three sides of the lagoon, which at high water 

 was from four to twenty feet in depth and through a 



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