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.”