Big Game at Sea 



The noise was deafening, and increased so when 

 we penetrated the bush and began to collect the eggs 

 that it was impossible to converse without screaming. 

 The eggs fairly covered the sand in places, and in a 

 short time the barrel was filled. As we returned to 

 the beach, exhausted by the fiery heat of the bay- 

 cedar bushes, we were confronted by a strange sight. 

 The water along the beach for two hundred yards 

 was a mass of foam, and the air filled with leaping 

 fishes. A school of jacks (Caranx hippos) had 

 followed a school of sardines and were chasing them 

 inshore, and now crazed by the sight of their prey, 

 were charging the mass, leaping upon the shore in 

 scores, presenting a scene which for excitement and 

 animation it would be difficult to equal. 



Shoving off, we were soon on the outskirts of the 

 school and in the very heat of the battle of extermi- 

 nation. The small fishes were packed along shore in 

 a solid black mass; now leaping out of the water, 

 flashing in the sun like molten silver, and creating a 

 continuous blaze of light. Into this the jacks, heavy, 

 blunt-headed fishes with silver sides and yellow fins, 

 gay creatures weighing eight or ten pounds, were 

 rushing like so many thunderbolts. Long ago they 

 had been satiated, and were now killing for the mere 

 desire for blood, evidently aroused to a high state of 

 frenzy by the sight of it. Seizing a handline, I 

 baited it with a wounded sardine and tossed it over. 

 Hardly had it struck the water before one of the 



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