TOPE AND OTHEE LEAPING SHARKS 



it in with great difficulty, and forgetting where I was, jerked 

 it through the port almost into the negro maid's lap. The eel 

 cleared that casemate as quick as would a shell with a smoking 

 fuse. 



I had never heard of eels as game fish, but after listening to 

 Mr. Holcombe's description, at the British Sea Anglers, of the 

 congers caught at BaUycotton and other places in Great Britain, 

 I found that I had overlooked a fish that made a hard fight. 



So it is with the mullet. I have Uved in Florida where the 

 natives looked upon muUet as a special dispensation from an all- 

 wise Providence. If a Conch or a negro, or a poor white, had 

 a barrel of ' grits ' and a castnet for mullet, he was independent 

 of any and aU earthly contingencies, as aU he had to do was to 

 wade a little and cast a little, for muUets were like the sands of 

 the sea. But as a game fish, I confess the mullet, a mud- 

 grubber and stupid, never occurred to me. Yet I am convinced, 

 after reading Aflalo, ' John Bickerdyke ' and other distinguished 

 authorities, that I was wrong. In California, within a year, I 

 have known of a mullet being taken with a fiy. 



It is the same with sharks. I imagine there are few anglers 

 who have caught more sharks of all kinds than I, merely 

 because I had an unusual opportunity. I lived on the Florida 

 reef, where I fished for sport and in the interests of science, 

 nearly every day for several years ; and we took to shark fishing, 

 as the reader would go out with the hounds, or take an hour's spin 

 with the single sculls for exercise. I fancy i£ my adventures along 

 this line were collected and appropriately garnished, they would 

 present a startling showing. 



But it never occurred to me to associate the shark with a 

 game fish. It was like hippopotamus shooting ; but I am 

 prepared to change my mind and accept some sharks as game, 

 particularly the British tope, the Santa Catahna bonito shark, and 

 the leaping shark of Texas; doubtless there are many more. 

 Often while fishing off Port Aransas I would hook a shark, 

 which in default of some better name, I called the tarpon shark. 



5 65 



