FISHING IN INDIAN WATERS. 541 



delicacy of " Ngapee " (rotten fish paste) and wliich nearly turned us all up ; 

 but it did him no harm apparently, for he lived to take, and still lives to 

 draw his pension, but I don't fancy that he liked it ,• and I do not remember 

 his ever repeating the experiment. 



But, though there is most excellent fishing all the year round in nearly 

 every part of the inner harbour, the two great features are the fishing for 

 bonJto, seer fish, dolphin, and albacore, which come on about the end of 

 April, and last on to about July or August., and the rock cod fishing, which 

 I have always found to be best during the cold weather months, say from the 

 end of October until the beginning of March. In April, either on account of 

 approaching clircatic disturbances, due to the monsotn, or peihaps from 

 some other natural causes connected with their growth, there suddenly 

 appear in the harbour countless niillions of small fry of several sorts of fish, 

 from 2 in, to 6 in. in length, and these shoals are followed up and accompa- 

 nied by troops of large ravenous fish, chiefly of the tunny and seer fish 

 tribes, and all day long these can be seen chasing and breasting in the shoals. 

 On an occasion of this sort, when the shoal is seen to be thus pursued, the 

 thing to do is, to get a boat at once and quietly row off and get into such a 

 position that the shoal shall pass close by and in front of you. Having 

 baited with a small live fish, you wait your chance, and then when the 

 commotion is at its height, pitch lightly into the middle of this arena, and 

 then see all clear for a run. The smaller fry, when pursued thus, seem to 

 dive for a short time, and you will probably help on this manuoevre by your 

 presence and by your throw : but your bait will not be able to disappear 

 with equal rapidity, being handicapped by your line, &c., and it will at once 

 attract the attention of some of the larger fish below. The consequence 

 being that a course of action is taken by the larger fish which you highly 

 approve of, which course of action is most likely to lead to your better 

 acquaintance. Hour after hour and day after day have I followed out these 

 tactics, and, I must say, that I have been very fairly successful. The very 

 largest fish I have ever killed on a rod, was hooked and killed in this 

 manner, I had been watching from the ship's deck a shoal quite close by, 

 which was being rapidly thinned out by the vigorous measures taken by 

 what I thought was a couple of large fish. The rod was rapidly put 

 together, and I was waiting for the boat to come round, when just 

 then, under the stern of the ship, appeared a fisherman's canoe with a couple 

 of Arabs in her whom I knew well, and with whom I had been out before. 

 They were after the same game, and same shoal. I waved them over, and 

 got into their boat, and they in a minute or so had planted me beautifully 

 in front of the shoal. A moment more and the two monsters were at their 

 larks again ; a heave, and my bait fell right close up to where I had just 

 seen one of them disappear, and the next second a furious plunge, and my 

 line went straight away with the reel simply shrieking. 

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