74 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



So, warily, the line was paid out, and a tempting piece 

 of bait dropped in the fish's tracks, while the boat was 

 cleared for action. 



" Take my bait ! " cried Hiawatha, 

 Down into the depths beneath him. 



" Take my bait, O sturgeon, Nahma ! 

 Come up from below the water. 

 Let us see which is the stronger ! " 



It was an exciting and a breathless moment as Kellaway, 

 still watching through the glass and directing operations, 

 saw the leviathan approach and fall a victim to the 

 luscious morsel. 



From this moment, for a good hour, it was a case of 



pull devil, pull baker." A very moderate estimate 

 of its weight put it down as over eighty pounds and nearer 

 a hundred, a prize indeed when one remembers that it 

 was no lumbering jew-fish, but a bright red, well pro- 

 portioned snapper. 



Naturally, the first quarter of an hour or more of the 

 fight consisted in trying to stop the fish boring down to 

 the rocks and smashing the line. I believe this was the 

 only occasion on which Lady Wilton ever allowed anyone 

 to touch her rod once a fish had been hooked. But at 

 the end of this first hard round, when the snapper's violent 

 efforts to spoil sport had begun to relax a little, she was 

 " all out," and Kellaway was allowed to leave his seat 

 and relieve the pressure on her forearms by supporting 

 the rod with one hand. Then inch by inch, more and 

 more line was slowly wound home, and the first danger 

 of the rocks averted. 



With the fish in mid-water, rush after rush still momen- 

 tarily threatened disaster on the bottom ; but the crisis 

 of the fight had been weathered, and yard by yard the 

 boat was now edged away inshore for a spot where the 

 water was shallow and the bottom all sand. 



Here in the clear water the huge proportions of the fish 

 could be clearly made out and fuUy reahzed. Curiously 



