"ENTANGLEMENT BY APPETITE "—KITING 41 



London, 1724) into the first silkworm line, and eventually into 

 telerana and similar tenuities of our day. 



" Entanglement by Appetite," of which a primitive form 

 exists among the Fuegians,i did Hterally " Hne upon line," 

 almost wythe upon wythe multiply its seed, if not quite like 

 the sand of the sea, yet freely. Proofs of this fecundity exist 

 in the varying and world-wide forms of its issue. A strong 

 family likeness enables us roughly to divide these descendants 

 into two classes. 



The first (A) where (to quote our leading law case) " the 

 human element " is absent, as in night lining, or in " trimmer- 

 ing," or in its distant and nowadays probably illegal con- 

 nection, the method of live-baiting for pike with the aid of a 

 goose or a duck, as set forth by T. Barker with his customary 

 gusto. 2 



The second (B) where " the human element " is present, 

 as in hand-Hning and in its very latest descendant, invented 

 for " big game fishing " off Santa Catahna, viz. a Hne attached 

 to a kite, which device secures the required " skittering " 

 along the surface and from wave to wave of the flying fish-bait. ^ 



' There is no hook ; only a piece of whalebone or a stem of sea-weed, with 

 a feather stuck at the end, attached to which is a running knot, which holds 

 the bait. As soon as the fish has swallowed feather and bait, the women, for 

 the men disdain fishing, draw it to the surface and quickly seize it. Cf. 

 Darwin, Jour, of Researches, etc., during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (London, 

 1S60), ch. X, p. 213. 



* " The principall sport to take a Pike is to take a Goose or Gander or 

 Duck, take one of the Pike Lines as I have showed you before ; tye the line 

 under the left wing and over the right wing, and about the bodie as a man 

 weareth his belt ; turne the Goose off into a Pond where Pikes are ; there is 

 no doubt of sport with much pleasure betwixt the Goose and the Pike. It is 

 the greatest pleasure that a noble Gentleman in Shropshire doth give his 

 friends for entertainment. There is no question among all this fishing but we 

 shall take a brace of good Pikes." 



^ For a full description of this method, see Sport on Land and Water, by 

 F. G. Griswold, privately printed (New York, 1916), and The Game Fishes of the 

 World, by C. F. Holder (London, 191 3). To the kite, which is of the ordinary 

 28-inch type, is allowed 700 feet of old fishing line from off a reel ; the fisher- 

 man's line is tied to the kite about 20 feet from the bait with a piece of cotton 

 twine. When a Tuna fish takes the bait the cotton line breaks, and the kite 

 is either reeled in or falls into the sea. The Santa Catalina fishing, with its 

 records of enormous Tuna, of Sword fish (the largest 463 lbs.), sometimes 

 fighting for 14 hours, sounding 48 times, and leading the launch for a distance 

 of 29 miles, and of Giant Bass weighing 493 lbs., fills a British angler with 

 envious despair, a despair which is heightened when one reads that the regula- 

 tion tackle prescribed by the Tuna Club is, or was not long ago, a sixteen 

 ounce Rod and a line not over No. 24 ! In Mr. Zane Grey's enthralling 



