TALES OF FISHES 



of lost opportunity. This great fish thinks! That 

 was my conviction. 



We sighted another that refused to take a bait 

 and soon went down. 



We had learned the last few days that broadbills 

 will strike when not on the surface, just as Marlin 

 swordfish do. 



On our next day out we had smooth sea all morn- 

 ing, with great, slow-running swells, long and high, 

 with deep hollows between. Vast, heaving bosom of 

 the deep ! It was majestic. Along the horizon ran 

 dark, low, lumpy waves, moving fast. A thick fog, 

 like a pall, hung over the sea all morning. 



About eleven o'clock I sighted fins. We made 

 a circle round him, and drew the bait almost right 

 across his bill. He went down. Again that familiar 

 waiting, poignant suspense! . . . He refused to strike. 



Next one was a big fellow with pale fins. We 

 made a perfect circle, and he went down as if to 

 take the bait! . . . But he came up. We tried again. 

 Same result. Then we put on an albacore and 

 drew that, tail first, in front of him. Slowly he 

 swam toward it, went down, and suddenly turned 

 and shot away, leaving a big wake. He was badly 

 scared by that albacore. 



Next one we worked three times before he went 

 down, and the last one gave us opportunity for only 

 one circle before he sank. 



They are shy, keen, and wise. 



The morning following, as we headed out over a 

 darkly rippling sea, some four miles off Long Point, 

 where we had the thrilling strikes from the big sword- 

 fish, and which place we had fondly imagined was 



186 



