FISHING WITH THE GUTTLE FISH. 209 



" They had a small fish, the flat headf of which was 

 furnished with numerous suckers, by which it attached it- 

 self so firmly to any object as to be torn in pieces rather than 

 abandon its hold. Tying a line of great length to the tail of 

 this fish, the Indians permitted it to swim at large. It 

 generally kept near the surface of the water until it per- 

 ceived its prey, when, darting down swiftly, it attached 

 itself by its suckers to the throat of a fish, or to the under 

 shell of a tortoise, nor did it relinquish its prey until both 

 were drawn up by the fisherman, and taken out of the 

 water." 



In this way the Spaniards witnessed the taking of a 

 tortoise of immense size, and Fernando Columbus himself 

 afiirms that he saw a shark caught in this manner on the 

 coast of Veragua. 



This account, strange as it may seem, has been corrob- 

 orated by various navigators, and the same mode of fishing 

 is said to be employed on the eastern coast of Africa, at 

 Mozambique, and at Madagascar. 



The South Sea Islanders have a curious contrivance for 

 taking the cuttle-fish, which resort to the holes of the coral 

 rocks, and protrude their arms or tentacles for the bait, but 

 remain themselves firm within the retreat. The instrument 

 employed for taking them consists of a straight piece of hard 

 wood, a foot long, round and polished, and not half an inch 

 in diameter. Near one end of this a number of the most 

 beautiful pieces of the cowry or tiger-shell are fastened, one 

 over the other, like the scales of a fish or the plates of a 

 piece of armour, until it is about the size of a turkey's e^^, 

 and resemble the cowry. It is suspended in an horizontal 

 position by a strong line, and is lowered by the fisherman 

 from a small canoe until it nearly reaches the bottom. The 

 fisherman then gently jerks the line, causing the shell to 

 move as if it were inhabited by a fish. The cuttle-fish, 

 attracted, it is supposed, by the appearance of the cowry 



