378 Big Game Fishes 
hard and closely contested hand-to-hand strug- 
gles, I may describe a certain catch made by me 
off Catalina Island. I was fishing for whitefish 
with a light rod when something took the bait 
and cleverly cut the wire leader; the next mo- 
ment the enormous fin of a shark appeared along- 
side the small boat and began to circle around it, 
so near that I could have touched it. My com- 
panion was demoralized, and demanded to be 
landed upon the rocks hard by. This accom- 
plished, I returned and the shark took three baited 
hooks as fast as I could renew the bait and cast 
them; when I hooked it, it merely turned its 
head, cutting the hook or wire. It was apparently 
between nine and ten feet in length, and I could 
plainly see the extraordinary hammerlike head 
with the eyes upon the ends, hypnotic and ugly. 
Near me was a boat in which were two Germans 
fishing, and as they landed a fish they hung it 
upon a string overboard. This now attracted the 
shark. I called to them and they jerked the 
string of fish into the boat, not a moment too 
soon to save it. The disappointed and hungry 
fish darted about the boat, striking it with its big 
dorsal fin, so terrifying the men, who doubtless 
had never before seen a shark, that they lay down 
