84 Big Game Fishes 
that if one fell into the boat it would pass 
through it as though paper; hence believing 
discretion the better part of valor, I began to row 
out of the school, but not before I had attempted 
a mental calculation of the height of some of 
the leaps which were being made about me. As 
I stood upon the seat of the skiff, the rushes of 
the tunas into the air appeared to the excited 
spectator, who may in these few moments have 
seen things which did not exist, to reach a point 
five or six feet higher than his head. 
The possibility of approaching schools of these 
fish suggests various methods of taking them. 
That most in vogue is to follow a school and 
endeavor to head it off, or so encircle it that the 
bait will cross the leaders; as a rule, two strikes 
are had if two lines are out, and several times 
both fishes have been saved. I have succeeded 
in obtaining a strike when tunas were not biting 
by heading off the school and casting into it, 
which is accomplished by reeling the line all in, 
having the heavy flying-fish as near the tip as 
possible. When the bait lands in the school 
with a splash, the tunas evidently consider it 
an exhausted flying-fish alighting, and forthwith 
charge it. When other methods have failed, 
