Devil's Playground

George Vanderbilt's friend, George Givat, comes for a visit and brags about the small bass he has caught while fishing. George is inspired to show Givat his photograph album, which launches him into an account of his recent fishing adventures: George and a crew sail among the Pearl Islands, off the west coast of Panama, where pearl divers look through glass-bottomed buckets to find oysters on the ocean floor. Over a period of time, George catches two sixty-pound wahoos and a red snapper. Suddenly the fish and pearl divers disappear when a huge manta ray, also known as a devilfish arrives. George hooks the fish and after a long tug of war finally pulls in the fish, which measures two and a half feet across and weighs over two thousand pounds. After passing through the Panama Canal, George and his crew visit the San Blass Indians, islanders who grow sugar cane and vegetables and live in thatched huts. As they head for sailfish grounds, they see small devilfish and butterfish leaping in and out of the ocean. This is a sure sign of the presence of sailfish, and after George dons a harness, he catches two. On another island, George finds the hatching grounds for green sea turtles and watches as the hatchlings instinctively head for the ocean. On the water once again, George catches a giant sea turtle for the San Blass Indians, who are so grateful that they gift George and his crew with various small animals. Before dawn, George returns to the Pearl Islands, where whales have been sighted. George decides to go out in a small rowboat to harpoon a whale, "just for the thrill of it." He is successful in hooking a whale, which puts up a valiant fight for survival. Two boxes of cartridges are pumped into the whale, but it continues to pull the boat and is joined by another whale. After many hours, they succeed in killing the whale, and plan to have "some whale on toast for dinner." On another fishing trip, George and his friend, Bill, leave from Miami, Florida, for the Bahamas after more difficult game--shark. They sail past the coastal town of Nassau and eventually find an uninhabited island called Green Key, where they build a tripod platform in the surf from which to sight sharks. Using stingray as bait, George hooks a bull shark, but it is so powerful that Bill must climb the tripod to help him reel it in. Although it is a small specimen, they hang the shark on the tripod "like a Christmas tree ornament." They catch yet another bull shark, but still George is not satisfied, longing to catch something larger. Finally he hooks a tiger shark, but the shark proves overpowering and George falls into the water. George successfully swims away from the shark and Bill is able to rescue him in a row boat. Upon their return to Green Key, they decide to hunt birds for dinner, but after their cook prepares the birds, they find the meat distasteful and decide to get conchs for their next meal. The next morning, Bill and George gather conch in the same manner the pearl divers find oysters. While George is below, he is threatened by a barracuda, but manages to return to the boat safely and decides they have had enough fishing. Givat is humbled by George's obvious prowess with fishing and throws out his own puny trophy.