CHAPTER XXVI 
THE LEAPING SHARKS 
“Toward the sea turning my troubled eye 
I saw the fish (if fish I may it cleepe) 
That makes the sea before his face to flye.” 
— SPENSER. 
Ir requires more than ordinary temerity with 
an audience of anglers, to admit, even by infer- 
ence, the shark to the select and honorable com- 
pany of game fishes. I do not propose to commit 
this possible solecism, but merely to describe the 
play and action under restraint, of several sharks 
which I have caught, and others which I have 
seen caught, and leave the question, game or 
vermin? to the reader. 
It has so happened that I have passed many 
seasons, winter and summer, in what might be 
termed “shark countries,” that is, localities 
where the shark was always a factor to be consid- 
ered. If a tarpon was played long enough to 
permit its blood to tint the water and reach away, 
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