The Amiable Fish 205 



handsome, as is that of the albacore. In fact, it 

 belongs to the rank and file of the sea, a common, 

 every-day sort of a deep-sea denizen, while the albacore 

 and dolphin are rather the aristocratic leaders of sea 

 society, after the whale tribe. This commonness of 

 character, coupled with what it is only a slight stretch 

 of language to call affability of demeanour, is what 

 has endeared the Bonito to sailors generally, although 

 alas, from the same cause as before noted, i.e. the decay 

 of the sailing vessel, there are many sailors afloat who 

 have never seen, and probably never will see, one. 



There is another, and still more important reason 

 why the Bonito is the sailors' best-loved fish — the 

 ease with which he may be caught. The handling 

 of the albacore from a ship's bowsprit is a task 

 demanding much more powerful tackle and strength 

 of arm than any ordinary man can give to it ; in fact, 

 it is very seldom that one takes a sailor's hook and is 

 afterwards secured. During all my voyages I have 

 only seen four actually brought on deck, but I do not 

 remember how many, only that it was a very large 

 number, that I have seen hooked and get away. 



Once while fishing for Bonito from the flying 

 jib-boom end (my favourite place) I was vigorously 

 flicking my lure, when a dark shadow shot upward 

 from beneath the ship and sprang into the air, revealed 

 as a superb albacore. I frantically jerked my line 

 upward as I saw him coming, but in vain ; he seized 

 my bait in mid-air and got well hooked. He was so 

 heavy that I could only lift him with both hands to 

 the line at once, yet I succeeded in bringing him within 

 six feet of my perch. Then the long-suffering line 

 parted and he fell back into the foaming head wave 

 with a stupendous splash ; and I realised with a 

 shudder from what I had escaped, for how could I, on 



