194 
THE BOOK OF FISHES 
After an hour or so, however, during 
which the Devil-fish alternated between 
trying to pull the bow under water and 
suddenly turning and endeavoring to come 
up under us, the anchor began to take 
hold better, and our giant was becoming a 
little more amenable to reason, so that a 
number of times we were able to haul in 
slack, rearrange our lines, and eventually 
to approach within 20 or 30 feet, as it 
labored along with its great batlike fins, 
a little less powerful in stroke and some¬ 
what slower, all of its body in plain 
sight, five or six feet below the surface of 
the water. 
WEIGHED MORE THAN 3OOO POUNDS 
It was at this point that Mr. Allison 
secured the pictures, which we have every 
reason to believe are the first and only 
actual photographs of a giant Devil-fish 
alive in its natural element. These pho¬ 
tographs, because of the refraction of 
light in the water, do not give a clear idea 
of this monster’s enormousness, and make 
it hard to realize that ourremarkable catch 
measured 22 feet across from the tip of 
one pectoral fin to the other and 17 feet 
I inch from the head to the end of the 
tail, and, moreover, weighed considerably 
more than 3,000 pounds. 
Seeing that it was well-nigh impossi¬ 
ble to give it a death blow, and that at 
any minute in its jockeying the fish might 
come up squarely under the boat and up¬ 
set us despite all that we could do, and as 
sharks had been attracted by its struggle 
and loss of blood, we naturally did not 
relish the thought of any such experience. 
VICTORY AFTER HOURS OF BATTLE 
Luckily, about this time, a fast-sailing 
little island sponge boat approached us to 
see what the excitement was all about, 
and we managed to make the spongers 
understand that they must go back to the 
yacht and bring the rifles, which had, 
unfortunately, been forgotten in our 
hurry to get started in the early morning. 
The native mariners were most willing 
to help, and made all haste possible; so, 
after another hour of skirmishing and 
ring generalship on both sides, the ship’s 
motor-driven dory came tearing out with 
an express rifle, and we were enabled to 
give the coup de grace. 
Until that moment not one of us real¬ 
ized that nearly five hours had elapsed 
since we first tackled this Jumbo of the 
deep, and none of us knew how tired we 
were, for in good truth we had been far 
too busy to give a thought to such small 
matters. Although this fish finally had 
four harpoons in its body and a dozen 
shots in its head and heart, it was by no 
means dead, and even then we had con¬ 
siderable difficulty in towing it into the 
harbor, miles away. 
Naturally, the natives of Bimini were 
very much interested in the capture, for 
Devil-fish were seldom seen much less 
captured, and we experienced no difficulty 
in engaging the services of a score of them 
to help get the carcass ashore, having 
decided to remove the hide and bony 
structure for preservation and mounting. 
NEARLY WRECKS THE WHARF 
By bringing into play a heavy block 
and tackle borrowed from the islanders, 
which was used for lifting and weighing 
cargoes of sisal fiber, and after much 
breaking of ropes, to say nothing of the 
wharf structure’s being in serious danger 
of collapse because of the great weight 
of the fish, we finally succeeded in getting 
most of its body out of water, so that it 
could be photographed and weighed by 
means of a large sisal scale. The utmost 
capacity of this scale was 3,000 pounds, 
and this is all which is claimed for the 
fish, although we judged it weighed 4,000, 
or possibly 5,000 pounds. 
Through the courtesy of Carl G. Fisher 
who had run over from the Florida coast 
in a fast express cruiser to join us in the 
sport, but who arrived too late to take 
part in the actual capture, we were en¬ 
abled to send back the necessary parts to 
a taxidermist at Miami for mounting, 
although it was a problem to know what 
to do with so enormous a thing after it 
was mounted, since not many rooms will 
take care of a fish measuring 22 feet 
across, and it was decided it would be 
presented to the splendid Aquarium at 
Miami Beach, of which Mr. Allison is 
president. 
