360 Big Game Fishes 
relieving my companion in this way that I 
hooked something which bade fair to lift me out 
of the dory, then when I renewed my hold, the 
unknown jerked my arms into the water, whirling 
the dory about in the most spirited manner, so 
convincing me that I had hooked a ground shark 
that I was inclined to pass the line to the pro- 
fessional. But suddenly the fish began to rise 
and came to the surface nearly one hundred and 
fifty feet away, tossing the water into foam, 
following it by a dash around the boat that would 
have made the reputation of many a game fish. 
“A halibut, I'll swan!” exclaimed my com- 
panion, “and a sockdolliger.” 
Now every real angler knows what a “sock- 
dolliger” is, and it is hardly necessary to refer 
to it; but for the benefit of the layman, the un- 
fortunate who has never fished, I may say that 
the term applies to those remarkable fishes of 
gigantic, even heroic size which constitute the 
main subject of conversation among anglers in 
the out season. It is the fish that always escapes, 
the record-breaker; every angler has hooked it a 
score of times, but has never landed it, and if the 
truth were told, never expects to. 
It will be seen that I was in a most fortunate 
