THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOELD 



foot by foot, until we reached the chain. Here was the dangra* 

 point. All the work had been done at the bow ; now the line 

 had to be transferred to the scull-hole at the stern, and the 

 way we did it was this : my companion took the line or the slack, 

 led it astern and placed it in the rowlock. I was now holding 

 the shark by the chain, his head not two feet distant, and he was 

 rolling over and over, doubling up, straightening out, beating the 

 water and ever and anon lifting his ponderous tail into the air, 

 striking out with deadly portent. In such a position, I have 

 had a shark seize the cutwater of my boat and bury its teeth 

 in it, hanging on, and wrench and try to shake it. It is a weird 

 sight to look down into the mouth of a man-eater, with its thirteen 

 or more rows of teeth packed away in layers, not two feet distant, 

 the most of them, the outer ones, grinding away at the chain. 

 When the shark rolled over on its back, by standing upright, I 

 would throw the rope over, let go, and spring to the stern, my 

 companion hauling in the Une as quickly as he could, often 

 getting the big head almost to the surface at the stern before 

 the shark knew what had happened. Then one would hold 

 the line whUe the other took the oar, and try to tow the game in, 

 generally impossible without help. 



I have fished for sharks off the beach when twenty or more 

 men would take the Une, and with a shout run the unlucky game 

 up the sands, even its remoras holding tp it. But this is not a 

 fair game, not the ' square deal ' we hear so much about in 

 America, and which appears to be the dominant note in Great 

 Britain. The attempt to manage a big shark, as I have de- 

 scribed, from a boat is unfair to the two men generally, as an 

 eight or fifteen-hundred pound shark is a leviathan, and if he 

 really knew his power could end the game at once. I once 

 caught such a shark at Fort Jefferson, Florida ; and have told 

 the story many times, as I never knew before of an attempt 

 to tame a big man-eater. Two of us, and I was but a lad, caught 

 and towed the shark for a mile or two, then a barge gave us a 

 tow, and when we finally reached the island, twenty or more 

 68 



