376 Big Game Fishes 
doubted my ability to land one of the sharks with 
my light rod and number twelve line. In a short 
time I had a strike, and upon hooking the game, 
up into the air it went, clear of the water, a 
mauve-colored creature beautifully striped and 
gracefully formed, to fall with a crash and dash 
up the beach at a speed that rapidly exhausted 
my line and forced me to run along the sands 
some distance before I succeeded in turning and 
stopping the shark, which had reached fairly 
deep water, and was making a most creditable 
fight, bearing off heavily, darting from side to 
side, and now and then rising into the air and 
shaking itself bravely. Had it not been a shark, 
the miserable scavenger of the sea, the cousin of 
the tarpon killer, it might have been considered a 
very gamy fish, as for fifteen minutes it defied my 
efforts to bring it to gaff, coming in then reluc- 
tantly, being gaffed in an extremely gallant manner 
by a fair angler of the party. This shark meas- 
ured nearly five feet in length, and weighed sixty 
pounds. The leaping habit is common to the 
species, at least in this locality. 
The sharks which have been taken in various 
localities with the rod and very light lines often 
surprise the layman by their size, girth, and fight- 
