The Halibut 361 
and unconventional position. I had hooked the 
sockdolliger before a witness who had proclaimed 
it on the high seas, and I readily understood why 
he was so anxious to take the line, — he wished the 
credit. His argument that it might be a five- 
hundred-pound fish, which would be valuable to 
him, and that he knew just how to manage “ such 
critters,” fell on deaf ears. I had chartered the 
craft and skipper, the sockdolliger was my pre- 
rogative, and I ordered the envious boatman to 
haul in the float anchor, and taking my place in 
the stern of the dory prepared to land the fish if it 
took allsummer. It is unnecessary to go into the 
details of this experience, needless to say that the 
fish plunged to the bottom again; it had come to 
the surface merely to “size me up,” and had re- 
turned satisfied that it was merely a question of 
time with me. I had lifted sulking turtles on the 
Florida reef ; had toiled with the big sunfish, side 
on; had labored with rays from the manta down; 
and had lifted seeming tons of coral when fishing 
for red snappers in the Gulf; but all these “sulkers” 
seemed combined in this mighty fish, which moved 
slowly on, taking line foot by foot with such regu- 
larity that I began to realize that it was tipping 
over the side of some submarine hill and going 
