AFRICTS CORAL STRAND 387 



continues, but presently on shortened line ; sometimes 

 the furious fish may dart beneath the keel ; each such 

 dangerous dash must be deftly countered, or a smash 

 is certain. Then, at the crucial moment when success, 

 however remote, begins at last to figure as a conceiv- 

 able contingency on the horizon right then may come a 

 yet mightier swirl, and a lo-foot shark has engulfed the 

 whole show the played-out barracouta, sardine, hook, 

 and all ! Snap goes the line, but never a sign of emotion 

 does the swarthy face of your ghillie betray, nor do his 

 lips emit a sound. 1 



That hazard is one main drawback the risk of 

 having a hard-earned booty snatched from one's grasp 

 at the last moment ; but other mischances impend as 

 when the deep-diving barracouta carries the running- 

 line athwart some jagged coral-reef far below ; thirdly, 

 the double rows of sharp teeth in the captive's 

 jaws may (and oft do) cut the line during a prolonged 

 struggle. 



The barracouta is a terribly strenuous opponent 

 violent is the only epithet that befits those tremendous 

 lunges that wellnigh tear the rod from one's grasp. 



Barracouta run to 40 Ib. or upwards possibly far 

 more. My first scaled but 18 Ib., though he had fought 

 like eighty, and my biggest 26 Ib. ; but I have held for 

 a space sundry monsters far heavier. One in particular, 

 I remember, for he leapt like a salmon or, better, 

 like a porpoise ; and towed us half- a - mile to seaward. 

 Albacore and bonitos (yellow-spotted) we also landed ; 

 both strong fighters but not to compare with barracouta. 

 When luck and line hold, the barracouta at least needs 

 no gaff. His long tapering run aft (mackerel-like), with 

 a tail like a screw-propeller, afford admirable hand-hold, 



1 A shark caught by hand-line from our ship, the British-India s.s. 

 Berbera, measured 9 feet 10 inches and weighed 235 Ib. Its stomach 

 contained the skull with a lot of hair and skin of a camel. There are, 

 of course, sharks much bigger than that. 



