Big Game at Sea 



leap upon them at any moment, or that a rogue ele- 

 phant is ready to charge, and those who find it inter- 

 esting to play a fish that is likely to sink the boat 

 or crash through it, all these belong to a class which 

 typifies the ideal of sportsmanship, where the human 

 animal divests himself of nearly all the advantages 

 which nature has given him and enters the lists with 

 the chances on the side of the lower animal. The 

 nearer the sportsman comes to this, certainly the 

 nearer he approaches the highest plane of sport, 

 whose motto the world over is " fair play." It is a 

 matter of congratulation that regard for the rights 

 of the lower animals is increasing all over the coun- 

 try, and that attempts are being made to raise the 

 standard of sport. 



While hunting for big game as a sport is of 

 extreme antiquity, honored by the precedents estab- 

 lished by famous hunters of all time, the capture of 

 great game fishes is a more or less modern pastime. 

 Twenty or thirty years ago a tarpon or a tuna reel 

 was unknown, and the sportsman who said that a two 

 or three hundred-pound fish could be caught with 

 what is technically known as a 18- or 2i-thread line, 

 would have been classed with Ananias, the patron 

 saint of all piscatorial romancers. I recall being 

 warned by a boatman at Santa Catalina, but a few 

 years ago, that it would be dangerous to hook a 

 tuna, as men had been jerked overboard by these 

 fishes and drowned. I was told the same story by 



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