Good Sport 233 



numerous and so very timid. Or it may be that for 

 some unaccountable reason scarcely any fish are seen, 

 and the fleet has to return practically empty. 



But the most usual form of scare for the fish is 

 the appearance of some of their natural enemies, 

 bonito, albacore, or dolphin. Then the nets are put 

 away, the lines are unrolled, and some real sport is 

 indulged in, which, pace those lovers of high angling 

 art who cannot see any fun in fishing except with a 

 rod, and who glory in beguiling the mighty tuna or 

 tarpon by means of a rod and line no thicker than 

 ordinary grocers' twine, has much to recommend it to 

 people whose chief aim is to earn a living, but who 

 have no earthly objection to a little sport thrown in. 

 And so, taking it all round, this old-fashioned fishery 

 of one of the least known, least understood sea people 

 in the ocean, goes merrily on in a satisfactorily suc- 

 cessful way, supplying the islanders with an abundance 

 of wholesome food of high quality at nominal cost 

 as a rule. For the average price is, or used to be, 

 about four or five a penny, each as large as a good- 

 sized herring. Guineamen, of course, fetch more, 

 but they are very seldom caught. 



Possibly because Barbadoes is so far to windward 

 that these deep-sea loving fish do not fear to frequent 

 it, it has a monopoly of the fishery, none of the other 

 islands seeming to care for establishing a similar enter- 

 prise. I am inclined to think that from its position, 

 so isolated and far out in the Atlantic, also its steep-to 

 shores, the Exocetus has come to regard Barbadoes 

 very much in the light of a ship which they can with 

 safety approach quite near to. Certainly I know of 

 no other island or mainland in the world where Flying- 

 fish are found in such abundance at so reasonable a 

 distance. Not even Ascension or St. Helena, although 



