Big Game at Sea 



be made to capture one of the monsters. Edward 

 Cotter, the proprietor of Tarpon Inn, volunteered to 

 make the effort if properly assisted by others, the 

 Sherman, or Athenian, contingent of the party being 

 especially anxious to attempt the feat. 



Among the visitors to this resort this year was one 

 Mr. Mayer, of New York, an ardent fisherman, who 

 comes to the place every year. On this occasion 

 he brought and left a new harpoon. It consisted 

 simply of a bolt of steel about six inches long 

 and was a half inch in diameter. The weapon was 

 made so that when the blow was struck the handle 

 would come out, leaving the harpoon proper attached 

 to the rope in the flesh of the victim. 



Early next morning the attempt was made, and a 

 monstrous specimen was soon found, and when two 

 of the party who were in a launch had reached within 

 a few feet of the fish, which evinced not the least fear, 

 one of them, named Kline, got up on his seat he is a 

 man of six feet and over, and of powerful build and 

 hurled the harpoon with all his strength. With a 

 bolt of steel about the length of a railroad spike, with 

 the weight of eight feet of half-inch iron rod behind 

 it and with a man of marvelous strength impelling 

 it, the harpoon sank into the mass of meat several 

 inches. There was a boiling of water. The boat 

 started as a flushed quail. The bow sank deep and 

 away went the boat for the gulf. The two men, 

 accustomed to the sea and things out of the ordinary, 



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