Big Game at Sea 



ward. It came through the air like a flying-fish and 

 landed in my boat, not a foot behind me, at which the 

 boatman, a calm and meditative man, a philosopher 

 from 'way down near the Rio Grande, who was 

 opposed to work on general and well-founded princi- 

 ples, remarked that we were not " skunked." 



This fish was a pompano, and in a few moments 

 another left the water near the same place. I noticed 

 it at the very second of its rise; saw it gradually go 

 up until it was four feet from the surface when it 

 deliberately turned, or fell over upon its side, and 

 came sailing along, after the fashion of a California 

 flying-fish; at least the broad surface tended to bear 

 it up, just as the wings of a flying-fish support this 

 large and heavy fish, and it came cutting through the 

 air and, to my amazement and the grim delight of 

 my philosophical boatman, dropped into the boat. 



So I am prepared to say that the pompano can leap 

 fifteen feet into the air, but whether the turning to 

 obtain the benefit of its flat surface was accidental, 

 or with a purpose, I leave the reader and the modern 

 nature writer to decide. 



These pompanoes were doubtless alarmed and 

 were attempting to escape from some enemy, and on 

 that eventful morning four or five fishes jumped into 

 our boat. This is often the fate of the mullet, which 

 is a graceful leaper covering four or five feet under 

 pressure the school rising like rippling silver. 



The leap of the sardine is a dazzling performance, 

 162 



