such eagerness that he actually springs
partially out of the water. This, however, is rare. On these occasions
he gorges the bait, the hook, and a foot or two of the chain, without
any mastication or delay, and darts off with his treacherous prize
with such prodigious velocity and force that it makes the rope crack
again as soon as the whole coil is drawn out; but in general he goes
more leisurely to work, and seems rather to suck in the bait than to
bite at it. Much dexterity is required in the hand which holds the
line at this moment; for a bungler is apt to be too precipitate, and
to jerk away the hook before it has got far enough down the shark's
maw. Our greedy friend, indeed, is never disposed to relinquish what
may once have passed his formidable batteries of teeth; but the hook,
by a premature tug of the line, may fix itself in a part of the jaw so
weak that it gives way in the fierce struggle which always follows.
The secret of the sport is, to let the voracious monster gulp down the
huge mess of pork, and then to give the rope a violent pull, by which
the barbed point, quitting the edge of the bait, buries itself in the
coats of the victim's throat or stomach. As the shark is not a
personage to submit patiently to such treatment, it will not be well
for any one whose foot happens to be accidentally on the coil of the
rope, for, when the hook is first fixed, it spins out like the
log-line of a ship going twelve knots.
The suddenness of the jerk with which the poor devil is brought up,
when he has reached the length of his tether, often turns him quite
over on the surface of the water. Then commence the loud cheers,
taunts, and other sounds of rage and triumph, so long suppressed. A
steady pull is insufficient to carry away the line; but it sometimes
happens that the violent struggles of the shark, when too speedily
drawn up, snap either the rope or the hook, and so he gets off, to
digest the remainder as he best can. It is, accordingly, held the best
practice to play him a little, with his mouth at the surface, till he
becomes somewhat exhausted. No sailor, therefore, ought ever to think
of hauling a shark on board merely by the rope fastened to the hook;
for, however impotent his struggles may generally be in the water,
they are rarely unattended with risk when the rogue is drawn half-way
up. To prevent the line breaking, or the hook snapping, or the jaw
being torn away, the device formerly described, of a ru
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