42 
Our Christmas Offer! 
FOREST AND STREAM j Both for 
McCALL’S $2 in 
Magazine J 
(Regular Price 3.00) 
,\Ir. t irniknnn t>m! Sp-m-wt 
THE MAGAZINE that for 
half a century has recorded the 
experiences of the foremost 
sportsmen, naturalists, and ex¬ 
plorers. A Magazine that tells 
you where to go and how to do 
things in the great outdoors. 
The healthiest literature a man 
can place before a growing boy. 
Great as has been the success and 
growth of McCall's during the past twelve 
months, the coming year will bring even 
more wonderful issues — the greatest 
novels of the year, the most beautiful 
pictures, the most popular stories, the 
famous McCall style designs, authorita¬ 
tive information on all important home 
activities. Here are just a few of the 
big features—- 
“The Story of the Bible,” by Hen¬ 
drik van Loon. 
“Eris,” a motion- picture novel, by 
Robert W. Chambers. 
“Double Doom,” by Louis Joseph 
Vance. 
Another Great New Love Story by 
Ethel M. Dell. 
We believe that everyone will he 
anxious to read “The Story of the Bible.” 
This will not only be the outstanding 
literary event of the next year but will 
undoubtedly become a classic—the only 
simple, understandable narrative of the 
great characters and events of the Bible 
that has ever been written. You will 
want McCall’s next year if only to read 
“The Story of the Bible.” 
This offer good for 60 days only ! Obey 
that impulse and print your name and 
address below and* mail at once ! To-day ! 
FOREST & STREAM 
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Enclosed herewith $2.10 for which please 
send me Forest & Stream and McCall’s, each 
for one year. 
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FISHING AND HUNTING 
PRESIDENTS 
(Continued from page 34) 
western Florida. Killing devilfish with 
the harpoon and the lance had always 
appealed to Roosevelt as a fascinating 
sport, since, as a boy, he had read El¬ 
liot’s account of it in his “Field Sports 
of South Carolina.” Nothing, however, 
approached in excitement and scientific 
interest the article which Russell J. 
Coles contributed to the April, 1916, 
number of the American Museum Jour¬ 
nal, entitled, “My Fight with the Devil¬ 
fish.” 
In a foreword to that article, Mr. 
Coles, who invited Col. Roosevelt to 
such a hunt, said that the devilfish, 
Manta birostris, is the largest of all the 
rays and one of the largest creatures 
of the sea. There are fabulous stories 
of its tremendous strength and great 
size, but it probably does not exceed a 
width of about twenty-five feet. It be¬ 
longs to a peculiar family of rays dis¬ 
tinguished by the fact that they have a. 
pair of flaps or feelers, at either side of 
the mouth, which help in their feeding. 
These feelers can be curled up tightly 
to resemble a pair of horns, and it is 
probably to this fact that the fish owes 
its common name. 
When Theodore Roosevelt read that 
story of Coles and his crew of five at¬ 
tacked in their power boat by two devil¬ 
fish, a male and a female, the boat being 
carried on the back of one of the in¬ 
furiated giants for twenty-two minutes 
until one moment when all thought it 
was their last, the youngest of the crew 
cried out: “Iron the big bull and let’s 
all go to Hell in tow of a team of 
devils !” the twenty-sixth President en¬ 
tered into correspondence with Coles. 
Roosevelt believed in preparedness, 
and so before going devilfishing he prac¬ 
ticed at Oyster Bay with a harpoon, 
making himself so perfect that when the 
time arrived that Captain Charley Willis 
cried, as the boat was rising and falling 
above the black bulk of the manta, 
“Iron him, Colonel,” the other six men 
in the Coles’ party marvelled at Roose¬ 
velt’s skill. 
The Colonel threw the harpoon true, 
the iron going deep into the middle of 
the great body; and instantly afterward 
Coles fastened it with another iron. 
With a tremendous flurry and a great 
gush of dark blood the devilfish plunged 
below and ahead, the drogue spinning 
along behind him, while the rope of the 
other harpoon ran like lightning through 
the ring. The big fish towed the boat a 
mile before the crew were able to haul 
in on him. 
When the fish was killed, it was found 
that Roosevelt drove his harpoon into 
the body two feet and four inches, 
through tough hide, flesh and bone and 
had passed through the upper part of 
the heart. The iron had been bent into 
a complete semicircle by the furious 
struggles of the mortally wounded fish. 
A second devilfish, ironed by Roosevelt, 
hauled the boat for two miles. They 
were male and female fish. 
Forest and Stream’ 
When both fish were drawn up upon 
the beach and measured, it was found 
that one had a breadth of thirteen feet, 
two inches from tip to tip and the second 
a breadth of sixteen feet, eight inches, 
flat measurement, not taken across the 
curve of the body. Coles’ fish, eighteen 
feet, two inches, is regarded as th r 
record fish ever taken. 
W ARREN GAMALIEL HARDING 
is an angler but he does not go in 
for such dangerous kind of fishing. The 
acrobatic tarpon is more to his liking. 
Just before March 4, 1921, when the 
President was moving from Marion, 
Ohio, Webster drew one of his amusing 
cartoons which had a wide circulation 
and which gave the American people a 
chance to chuckle. It was entitled “A 
Voice from the Attic of a House in 
Marion.” 
Mrs. Harding, not visible, was quoted 
as saying: “Warren Harding, I am not 
going to cart all this junk to the White 
House ! Either give it away or burn it! 
And here’s a whole bale of fishing 
magazines up here you’ll never look at 
again and a dozen bottles of mosquito 
dope!” 
The President was standing, per¬ 
plexed, holding his chin. On the floor 
was a pair of rubber boots for wading 
trout streams, a rod, tackle box, landing 
net, fly book, a flask (always considered 
an essential part of a fishing trip in case 
you get wet), reel, and strewn all over 
the floor, various kinds of plugs. Being 
thrown from the attic and ready to land 
on the stairs of the floor were a bait 
can, rod case and creel. 
It was very amusing but as a matter 
of fact on the trip to Point Isabel, Texas, 
in November, 1920, Mrs. Harding cap¬ 
tured a larger tarpon than did her hus¬ 
band. 
President Harding's most noteworthy 
fishing has been done in the Florida 
waters, when accompanied by Captain 
Charles Thompson. With Captain 
Thompson, President Harding caught 
sailfish, tarpon, kingfish, amber jack, bar¬ 
racuda, grouper and the rare wa-hoo. 
“A piscatorial President! That’s 
what you are, sir,” remarked Captain 
Thompson. 
President Harding could have selected 
no better guide in the Florida waters 
than Captain Thompson. For Captain 
Thompson believes that story of Jonah 
and the big fish. He killed, after a 
thrilling ride of thirty-nine hours, a 
whale shark weighing 30,000 pounds. 
He got this fish from a boat twenty feet 
long, while he was fishing off Knight’s 
Key, Florida, June 1, 1912. He and his 
crew, like that of Coles and his crew, 
riding on the back of a manta, were 
close to death often. The fight was seen 
from shore and in response to hurried 
telephone calls, visitors watched the 
battle from the East Coast Extension 
Railway. 
After Captain Thompson harpooned 
his 30,000-pound fish, a wild ride fol¬ 
lowed for more than a day and a half. 
By that time Captain Thompson and his 
crew of three in the “Somoa” put five 
harpoons in the fish, and 151 bullets in 
In writing to Advertisers n-ention Forest and Stream. It will identify you. 
