AFRIC’S CORAL STRAND 
387 
continues, but presently on shortened line; sometimes 
the furious fish may dart beneath the keel; each such 
dangerous dash must be deftly countered, or a smash 
is certain. Then, at,the crucial moment—when success, 
however remote, begins at last to figure as a conceiv¬ 
able contingency on the horizon—right then may come a 
yet mightier swirl, and a io-foot shark has engulfed the 
whole show—the played-out barracouta, sardine, hook, 
and all! Snap goes the line, but never a sign of emotion 
does the swarthy face of your ghillie betray, nor do his 
lips emit a sound. 1 
That hazard is one main drawback—the risk of 
having a hard-earned booty snatched from one’s grasp 
at the last moment; but other mischances impend—as 
when the deep-diving barracouta carries the running¬ 
line athwart some jagged coral-reef far below; thirdly, 
the double rows of sharp teeth in the captive’s 
jaws may (and oft do) cut the line during a prolonged 
struggle. 
The barracouta is a terribly strenuous opponent— 
violent is the only epithet that befits those tremendous 
lunges that wellnigh tear the rod from one’s grasp. 
Barracouta run to 40 lb. or upwards—possibly far 
more. My first scaled but 18 lb., though he had fought 
like eighty, and my biggest 26 lb.; but I have held—for 
a space—sundry monsters far heavier. One in particular, 
I remember, for he leapt like a salmon — or, better, 
like a porpoise; and towed us half- a - mile to seaward. 
Albacore and bonitos (yellow-spotted) we also landed; 
both strong fighters but not to compare with barracouta. 
When luck and line hold, the barracouta at least needs 
no gaff*. His long tapering run aft (mackerel-like), with 
a tail like a screw-propeller, afford admirable hand-hold, 
1 A shark caught by hand-line from our ship, the British-India s.s. 
Berbera , measured 9 feet 10 inches and weighed 235 lb. Its stomach 
contained the skull with a lot of hair and skin of a camel. There are, 
of course, sharks much bigger than that. 
