198 TROPIC DAYS 



fish wholesale, or of reducing them to palsied cripples. 

 The three described are fairly common, and have, 

 therefore, been selected to point a moral. Poisoning 

 fish is a poor sort of sport, perhaps, but there are two 

 classes of fishermen — the hungry and the artistic. 

 The latter use flimsy tackle and complicated gear, 

 and play the game, giving the victims to their wiles 

 a sporting chance. Though not the onlj^ representative 

 of the hungry class, the black boy generally fishes on 

 an empty stomach, and his demeanour coincides. No 

 slobbering sentiment affects him. Yet he is not so 

 cruel as the mean white who throws a plug of dynamite 

 into the river while the fish are enjoying their crowded 

 hour, though he will with as little taint upon his con- 

 science poison a pool full of fish as drag with hooked 

 stick a reluctant crab piecemeal from its burrow among 

 the mangrove roots. But then he is responding to 

 the appeals of a clamant and not over-particular 

 stomach, while your dynamitard is occasionally a well- 

 fed barbarian with a queasy palate. 



Fly-Fishing. 



The neatest and most artistic method by which the 

 blacks kill fish necessitates the employment of a 

 particular species of spider known to the learned 

 as Nephila maciilata piscatorum. This spider was 

 discovered on Dunk Island by Macgillivray, the 

 naturalist of the expedition of H.M.S. Rattlesnake in 

 1848. It has a large ovate abdomen of olive-green 

 bespangled with golden dust; black thorax, with coral- 

 red mandibles; and long, slender legs, glossy black, and 

 tricked out at the joints with golden touches. A fine 

 creature, gentle and stately in demeanour, it spins a 

 large web, strong enough to hold the biggest of beetles 



