Big Game at Sea 



An English angler relates his experiences with a 

 large specimen as follows: " I was master of a smack 

 in Loch of Brae some years ago, when one of the 

 hands sang out : ' The net's foul ! J 



'* The smack had been fishing all day, and the men 

 had let the big seine around a school of mackerel, 

 and were slowly hauling it in when something oc- 

 curred which caused the halt. The mate immediately 

 began to feel around in the big bag for the offender, 

 which was generally a shark, though occasionally 

 porpoises were trapped with the mackerel. In a few 

 minutes the hook fastened upon a shiny object, and 

 slowly a most remarkable fish came into view. As 

 the mate hauled it up he passed its head to the man 

 next to him, who, in turn, passed it along to his 

 neighbor, and so on until the bow of the boat was 

 reached. Then one of the men took the fish by the 

 gills and pulled it aboard. 



" Fifteen feet of this curious creature had been 

 passed along like a cable from hand to hand, and 

 still the end did not come. The men were amazed, 

 and their astonishment grew as ten feet more of the 

 silvery body came out of the net, then ten more. Then 

 the end came, and the strange fish was laid out along 

 the deck, reaching from one end of the smack to the 

 other and beyond a total length of over fifty feet 

 and a beautiful object in the bright sunlight. 



" As long as it was, it was not over fifteen inches in 

 height, and presented the appearance of a satin rib- 



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