408 OURNAL, BOMB A Y NA TUliAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII. 



This is by far tlie prettiest sea-fishing there is to be had, and many an hour 

 have I spent over it. Ordinarily, however, one fishes for garfish with a small 

 fish for bait, varying the size of the bait to suit the size of the fish about, but 

 in every case it must be fine and far off. I have found that it is always best 

 when possible to use the fish-bait alive, just keeping it on to the hook, either 

 by passing the hook through its lip, or better still, just under the skin behind 

 the dorsal fin, and then simply letting it roam. In hot weather it is very 

 difficult to keep the fry alive, and if used dead, they should be spun. Under 

 these circumstances a small spinner of sorts is most useful. I personally 

 like the Chapman best, and I use the smallest size I can get, and have had 

 many and many a run and lost many and many a fish. 



However much garfish like the fry, there is one thing that they like much 

 better, and I know of no bait that comes up to it for downright dea'iliness. 

 It is the common cockroach — not the insect that runs about the kitchen at 

 home which is more of the nature of the black beetle, but the luscious full- 

 powered odoriferous "janwa"that is always to be found roaming about 

 ships that have been in the Eastern trade and which are so common and, I 

 think, peculiar to Oriental and tropical countries. Every one who has ever 

 sailed out here knows them well. They possess a peculiarly strong pungent 

 and disagreeable smell and. are perfectly fiendish in their capacity for des- 

 troying one's boots, books, clothes, &c., and their activity is such that it takes 

 a smart boy indeed to kill one even in the open, while in a ship's cabin full of 

 nooks and crannies, he seems to carry out his own wicked will and go his 

 own aggravating way with absolute impunity. You may catch him in 

 flagrante delicto and carefully raise your slipper and determine in your own 

 mind that in one second more his blood shall stain the heather — or your best 

 counterpane — and crash, bang down comes the slipper, as yon think, on his 

 devoted head; but nothing of the sort j he has executed most neatly a strategic 

 movement towards his own particular corner, and the cnly thing you will see 

 will be his long antennai waving as he disappears down some chink probably 

 between the boards of your bunk, only to appear shortly in some other place, 

 from which he will watch his chanee as soon as he feels assured that the 

 coast is clear, to be up to his trices again. With such a brute to deal with, it 

 can easily be imagined that it is almost as difficult to catch your bait as it is 

 to catch your lish, and truly so have I found it. While on the subject of the 

 cockroach I may tell you that the only satisfactory way I know of catching 

 them is to get a few open gallipots or large-mouthed pickle bottles and put a 

 small quantity of a mixture of beer and sugar in the bottom and place these 

 in the cupboards and store rooms which they frequent. If you are in a ship 

 blessed with cockroaches you will scon get as many as you may want. It is 

 almost incredible how many can be caught in this way even in a ship where, 

 as a general rule, they are not much in evidence, and when, if you were asked 

 if there were any, you would probably indignantly deny their existence. 



