HARPOONING FROM A CANOE
Do you want to go for any more manatees?" asked Dick, the next
morning.
"Guess not. We're pretty well acquainted with the critters already
and if we tackled another it would likely be a bigger one, and the
sample we had was about all we could manage. But the bay here is
full of big fish. Suppose we get out the little harpoon and pick up
some drum-fish, channel-bass or a whip-ray?"
When the boys started out for a day of harpooning, Dick sat high up
on the stern of the canoe with the paddle, while Ned stood in the
bow with the harpoon.
"Hadn't you better sit down in the bottom of the canoe to paddle?
The canoe feels wobbly to me," said Ned.
"What's the matter with your nerves, Neddy? I'm not going to capsize
you. S'pose I practiced half a day with that papoose for nothing?"
"Most of that practice was swimming, wasn't it? I don't want any of
that in mine to-day."
Ned harpooned several large drum-fish, and finally got a
channel-bass, after missing several.
"We've got a lot more fish than we can eat now. Let's go for
something big and have some fun. Hit that shark over there."
"That shark could bite this canoe in two and then swallow the
pieces. I wouldn't mind that so much if we were in the Glades, but I
don't want to be set afoot so far from fresh water. See that big
whip-ray! It's a beaut;--paddle up to it, Dick."
Dick paddled toward the fish, which was shaped like a butterfly,
with a back six feet broad, covered with beautiful little white
rings placed on a jet black background. The graceful creature
fluttered along the surface of the bay with a bird-like motion, at a
speed that soon took it nearly out of sight of the boys. Dick
followed it, as it zigzagged about the bay, sometimes skimming on
the very surface and then disappearing in the depths for minutes at
a time. Once it was out of sight for five minutes, and Dick had just
stopped paddling, saying:
"Got to give it up. That big butterfly is the other side of the bay
by this time," when Ned saw the broad back of the creature gliding
beneath his harpoon, beside the canoe and a foot or two under the
surface. His quick side-throw was doubly effective, for the harpoon
was buried in the back of the quarry, while Ned and Dick were buried
in the water of the bay. The center of gravity of the canoe's cargo
of boys was at least two feet above the gunwales of the craft, and
when Ned's side-thrust threw him out of balance, the canoe popped
from under him, and as Dick sat on the stern of the canoe and quite
outside of it, he was in the water as soon as his chum. The whip-ray
had darted away at high speed as soon as the iron touched him, but
before the line which was coiled in the harpoon tub had run out, Ned
had seized the tub, which was floating near him when he came to the
surface.
The end of the line was fast to the tub and when it was reached Ned
was hauled through the water by the fish. If Ned had been built like
a canoe, he would probably have caught the whip-ray, but the drag of
the boy in the water was too much for the hold the iron had in the
body of the creature, and the harpoon tore out. The boys managed to
rock the water out of the canoe, but swamped it several times while
trying to get in it without going ashore. After they had succeeded,
Dick took the harpoon, while Ned sat in the bottom of the canoe with
his paddle.
"Now go ahead and harpoon your fish and I'll show you how to keep a
canoe trimmed. What you really need is a scow," said Ned.
"If I couldn't throw a harpoon over the side of a canoe without
going over the other side myself, I'd give up fishing and try
farming. Now just paddle softly in the wake of that big fin. Know
what it is? I thought not. Well, it's the bayonet fin of the tarpon,
my son, and if you'll paddle quietly and stay inside the boat, you
shall have the fun of your life."
The tarpon was tame, and Ned paddled within twenty feet of it
without frightening it, but Dick made a poor shot. The back of a
tarpon is narrow and a small mark for a harpoon when thrown from
behind the fish, and Dick's weapon grazed its side, while the pole
fell across the back of the tarpon, causing it to give one wild leap
and depart for regions unknown. Dick was now out for tarpon, and
paid no attention to smaller fish, many of which came within
striking distance. Tarpon were scarce that day, and Dick's next
chance was an hour in coming, and then the fish happened to be
headed for the canoe. The boy had not learned the difficulty of
throwing an iron through the coat of mail of a tarpon excepting from
abaft the beam of the fish, and he drew in his harpoon with a
beautiful four-inch scale fixed on its point.
"Take the harpoon, Ned. I couldn't hit a house."
"Yes, you could. You hit that tarpon. Only trouble was, you didn't
know where to hit it. Keep on practicing. You said I'd have the fun
of my life, and I'm having it."
[Illustration: "THE STRICKEN TARPON LEAPED SIX FEET IN THE AIR"]
Half an hour later Dick made a beautiful, long throw of nearly
thirty feet, and the stricken tarpon leaped six feet in the air. For
two hundred yards the frantic fish towed the canoe in a straight
line, at a high rate of speed, and then began a series of leaps in
the air. Some of these were long jumps which barely cleared the
surface of the water, while others were from eight to ten feet
vertically upward. The tarpon then darted away in a new direction,
blistering Dick's hands as the line tore through them. For a quarter
of an hour the drag of the canoe made little difference in the speed
of the tarpon, but then it began to slacken and Dick was able to
pull the canoe up beside the fish, which gave a leap and a sweep of
its tail that drenched both of the boys and, if the tarpon had been
a foot nearer, would have wrecked their craft. Again the creature
dashed away, getting back most of the line that Dick had taken in.
Once more the fish weakened, and the canoe was drawn up beside it,
and once more it sprang in the air and dashed away. But with each
fresh effort the tarpon became weaker, until Dick said to Ned:
"He's about played out. Better take the gaff next time I get near
him and see if you can land him in the canoe."
"No," replied Ned, "he's your tarpon and you can gaff him yourself.
He'll capsize the canoe when he comes aboard and I want to be ready
to swim."
[Illustration: "THE TARPON BEGAN A SERIES OF LEAPS"]
Dick drew the canoe beside the tarpon and, dropping the
harpoon-line, held the handle of the big gaff-hook in both hands,
ready to strike. But the fish saw the uplifted weapon and sheered
away, swimming with renewed vigor, and Dick had to work for another
half hour before his quarry was quiet enough for the blow. This
delay was fortunate for the boys, since it left the tarpon too tired
to struggle. When Dick sank the steel gaff deep in the throat of
the Silver King and dragged it over the side of the frail canoe,
Ned sat in the bottom of the craft with a hand on each gunwale,
ready to balance the boat or swim, as events might indicate.
The boys took a lot of the big silver scales as souvenirs and then
slid the body of the tarpon into the bay, where it was soon devoured
by a couple of wandering sharks.