SHARKS AS FISHERMEN 



the lighthouse pier. A shark is helpless in shoal 

 water and we soon had ours stranded where we 

 could wade out to him with a club and a strong 

 line. Even a Brahmin couldn't look into the 

 cold, glassy, cruel eyes of a shark without re- 

 joicing at the chance to pound its head into a 

 pulp with a big club. We held an autopsy on 

 the beach and regretted that our rescue of the 

 tarpon we had avenged was too late to be of 

 service to the creature. 



On the last night of our stay at Boca Grande 

 the tarpon community celebrated our coming de- 

 parture by a spectacular display. The whole 

 harbor was filled with micro-organisms that 

 made the water luminous. Every fish that 

 moved left a trail like a falling star and when a 

 great school was disturbed the effect was that 

 of a lake of fire. All the tarpon in the harbor 

 were at play and each flash of light from a bunch 

 of frightened fish was followed by a column of 

 fire which burst into a rocket-like shower of 

 sparks as a great tarpon shot into the air. 



We got in the canoe with a tarpon rod and 

 trailed the bare hook on the surface of the bay. 

 But the rivulet of fire in our wake and the blaz- 



69 



