200 JOURNAL, BOMB AY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



many years, and have helped largely to lighten ennui and while away the 

 many weary hours out here in what Sir Alfred Lyall calls " this land of 

 regrets." 



The above was written for and published hy "The Fishing Gazette''' m 

 1897, but since then I have been out on several occasions with varying re- 

 sults. On one occasion I hooked and eventually landed a fish which, at the 

 time, I thought was going to prove the biggest fish I had caught. The run 

 was felt as usual and at once I recognised I had a heavy fish. As things pro- 

 ceeded I mentioned to the friend who was with me my extreme desire to 

 get a 20 pounder, and my idea that this would turn out to be the fish. A good 

 half hour's desperate run backwards and forwards without a glimps'- of my 

 friend, strengthened me in this idea, and I was greatly disappointed when he 

 turned up into the net, and only turned the scle at \\i lbs. The reason for 

 the deception was plain. He had been foul hooked outside on the underneath 

 side of the throat, half way between the pectoral fins, and that accounted 

 for tbe very little control I was able to get over him. It was the first time for 

 many a long day, that 1 have had my fingers burnt, but whether through 

 carelessness or clumsiness, I got the two first fngers of my right hand badly 

 burned. I suppose he had been mouthing the bait when I first felt him, dis- 

 covered the danger latent therein, dropped it, and had begun to clear out 

 when the stroke was given which firmly fixed the hook in his throat, only out- 

 side instead of in. He was a good fish and paid the penalty gamely. He was 

 one of four killed that day— August 14th 1897— all of which were above the 

 average in size. Another day— September 11th, 1897— will always remain a red 

 letter day to me, I went out from 1-30 p.m. to 4-30 p.m., I was actually fishing 

 for 2 hours 10 minutes out of this time, and during that time I caught 13 fish 

 of the following weights :—13Ubs, 111 lbs, 11| lbs, 11 lbs, lOf lbs, lOJ lbs, 

 10^ lbs, lOi lbs, 10 lbs, n lbs, 8 lbs, 5 lbs, 4i lbs. Total, 127^ lbs. Tide, 4'-5". 

 Wind W. by S. 4. The thirteenth fish— one of the bigger ones— plunged 

 clean through and broke my landing net, but was eventually landed. At the 

 same time I had run short of bait. But for this misfortune I am convinced 

 that I should have caught a good many more as there seemed to be no 

 scarcity of fish about. In addition to the thirteen landed, I ran and lost 

 either seven or eight. From the fact that there were so many fish about 

 I realised that I could not afford to loose time over each individual fish 

 and therefore played them rather more roughly than I otherwise would have 

 done and in consequence, lost my fish. As an instance of how ravenous they 

 were,' I may state that the first five throws secured five fish, and once while 

 clearing the line, which had fouled the point of my rod, the prawn hung 

 down about six inches off the water. A wave surged up and at that moment 

 a fish took the prawn. His plunges nearly took the rod out of my hands 

 and as nearly as possible broke the top. Luckily the line had just been 

 cleared, it ran free and I got that fish. Such was my best day last year. This 



