88 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



your face and hands in perfect fearlessness is quite 

 another. However, one can be tender-hearted with- 

 out being sentimental and if I need the facts for 

 science, to complete the life-history of a whole 

 species, I will shoot a dove on her eggs without 

 compunction. I sympathize, on the other hand, 

 with the Hindoo fishermen of the Laccadives who 

 are not allowed by their faith to take life, and 

 hence, when they have drawn their nets, they rush 

 ashore and lay the still living fish gently upon 

 leaves and moss. Later they return, and finding, 

 to their surprise, a lot of fish which are quite dead, 

 it is permitted that they gather them up to sell or 

 to eat. 



So it was not with the unmixed feelings of a tri- 

 umphant Neptune or a successful ichthyologist 

 that I clambered up the ladder, and when near the 

 surface held out my trident with the impaled fish. 

 My pleasure in the feat was heightened when I 

 finally ascended and found my fish swimming un- 

 concernedly about in the well of the boat. As a 

 matter of fact, a much greater percentage of my 

 speared individuals recovered and survived, living 

 and feeding contentedly for weeks in our aquaria, 

 than of those we caught on hook and line. Almost 

 invariably the tip of the grains would penetrate 

 only the mass of back muscles, leaving quite un- 

 touched the head and the vital organs of the body. 



I experimented with all sorts of methods, such 

 as putting a bit of crab on the trident itself. This 

 was a complete failure, for the fish would crowd 

 around it head-on, and with all my efforts I never 



