THE LEAPING TUJ^TA 



ing fish. I have seen a flushed flying fish off San Clemente fly 

 or soar (the wings do not beat, the fish being a typical biplane, 

 having two sets of fins or wings) a quarter of a mile. During 

 this soaring it touched the water with its twisting propeUor- 

 Hke tail several times, never dropping and always two or three 

 feet above the surface. Yet the tuna never lost sight of it in its 

 long run. I was so certain of it that I told Dr. Pinchot and Mr. 

 Stewart Edward White, who were with me, to keep their eyes on 

 the flier at the finish and see the explosion. We all watched 

 the extraordinary flight (?) around the fourth of a circle, when the 

 imfortunate fish dropped, dead tired. A wave of white flocculent 

 foam rose into the air as the racing tuna stopped, turned and 

 seized it. There is no more splendid sight in the realm of strenu- 

 ous angling than to see the tuna feeding. Up into the air he goes, 

 ten or fifteen, or more, feet after a flying fish, perhaps catching 

 it, more often hitting it, sending it whirling upward like a pin- 

 wheel, catching it on the return. The leap thus made is a perfect 

 and graceful curve. The tuna has been known, but very rarely, 

 to leap when hooked, but I have never seen it. That it would 

 leap in shallow water there is no doubt, but with a half mfle of 

 deep-blue water below, the tuna plunges down, eternally down. 

 The tuna is almost invariably underway when it strikes ; 

 hence the angler is often thrown into a fever of alarm at the 

 shrieking cUck and the fast-disappearing tine. How to stop 

 without breaking the latter is the exact mathematical problem, 

 and it was during the working out of this that ' tuna fever ' became 

 a synonym of ' buck fever.' Many men would go to pieces and 

 lose fish after fish, line and rod, before they could temper the 

 pressure. Tunas are now taken from laimches, but I prefer the 

 smaU boat, or should if I should try it again, as here the fish has 

 fair play. I took my fish from a yawl, as did Colonel Morehous, and 

 Mr. Eoss gave battle to his giant six hundred and eighty pounder, 

 in l^ova Scotian waters, in a small dinghy with two men at the 

 oars. The angler can sit in a small skiff and be towed by the 

 launch. The boatman casts off at the strike and backs water, so 



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