326 MODERN SEA FISHING 



Very often two out of three fish hooked were lost. Mr. G. G. 

 Borrett, Surgeon R.N., who was fishing with Lieutenant- 

 Commander E. Hunter-Blair, soon after crossing the equator 

 in the Atlantic, lat. 7 N., long. 7 W., caught a tunny of 180 Ibs., 

 and an hour or two later another nearly as large. Off the 

 Cape de Verde Islands he secured tunny of xoolbs., and an 

 albicore of 43 Ibs. Among the many notable fish caught by 

 Captain Howell was the large albicore already mentioned, 

 and another of no Ibs. He often secured two hundredweight 

 of fish in a day. Most of his largest specimens were taken 

 between Aden and Zanzibar. 



Not the least charming feature of this ocean fishing is that 

 the quarry are more or less edible. Dolphins are considered 

 quite a luxury in the Mediterranean, fetch a high price at 

 Gibraltar, and their weight in rupees at Bombay. The name 

 is a popular one given to several species of Delphinus. The 

 common dolphin is not unlike a porpoise, but has a much 



sharper snout. Byron wrote : . 



Parting day 



Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues 

 With a new colour, as it gasps away, 

 The last still loveliest, till 'tis gone and all is grey. 



But this creature of the changing colours, alluded to by the 

 poetical youth on the East Indiaman, is not one of the mammalia 

 at all, but the coryphene (not to be confounded with coryphee, 

 whose colours are artificial, and unchangeable by the emotions), 

 which is a true fish. On the edible question Captain Howell 

 writes me : ' The bonito is little thought of by anyone as an 

 edible fish, though sailors seem to like them. Both dolphin 

 and barracuda are excellent eating, especially the former. The 

 dolphin, to my taste, is one of the most delicate-eating fish that 

 swims. The seerfish has been described as being like a white 

 salmon.' 



