A ZIGZAG TRIP AND A ZOO 



"I'm glad you didn't have it," I replied, "for 

 if you had fired a gun in this tottlish box that 

 bear would have been fishing us out of the mud 

 for his supper by this time." 



"We must get ashore quick!" broke in the 

 Camera-man. "There's a big leak and I can't 

 keep the water down." 



After we were safely ashore we found that the 

 leak was in the bow of the box where I had been 

 sitting and came from a rotten board that I must 

 have loosened when the bear made me jump. 



On our return to the Irene we found that Joe 

 had had a busy afternoon. About noon a ham- 

 merhead shark of the largest size had called upon 

 him and been treated to a mullet on a big shark 

 hook at the end of a half inch line. The fish 

 swung the Irene about for a time until Joe had 

 attached one end of the line to the windlass and 

 cast it loose from the cleat that had held it. 



Then the boy's fun began. With three or four 

 turns of the line on the windlass he could hold 

 the great brute with his left hand, giving hirn 

 rope if his struggles threatened to break line or 

 hook. His right hand rested on the lever of the 

 windlass and he wound the creature in as oppor- 



197 



