Big Game at Sea 



amidships, prepared for the rush which we knew 

 might come at any moment. 



We had been towed perhaps three miles against 

 the obstacles, and finally saw a gleam of white and 

 felt that the finish was near. Giving the word, we 

 both hauled with all our strength, and were repaid 

 by the clank of the chain against the keel the game 

 was ours. But not yet. The monster rolled over 

 several times; then, feeling the bow against its nose, 

 turned and seized the cut-water in its cavernous 

 mouth and crunched it, driving the serrated teeth into 

 the wood. Then, hanging on like a bulldog, it made 

 a rush ahead, lifted the bow out of water and almost 

 capsized the boat. My companion very nearly lost 

 his balance, land, thinking that we were going over, 

 hailed a fishing-boat about two hundred yards dis- 

 tant; but we righted, and grasping a heavy oak gaff, 

 I thrust it into the maw of the shark and fought it 

 off. I had the chain in a firm grasp with a turn, 

 and the mouth of the man-eater was not more than 

 three feet from my face, as terrible a living guillotine 

 as could be imagined. Row after row of serrated 

 teeth could be seen, one row erect, the others lying 

 flat except when in use, and forming a veritable 

 pavement. 



To handle such a shark, weighing perhaps fifteen 

 hundred pounds, was no easy matter, as its mere 

 weight was an obstacle to progress. The game had 

 been brought, theoretically, to gaff, but to land it was 



