SCHNAPPER AND BLACK BREAM 133 



baited, and, at a pistol shot from the secretary 

 (since everything is done with some formality), 

 down fly nine leads through the clear water to the 

 reef, fifteen fathoms below us. Not more than 

 three or four minutes elapse before three of them 

 are being hauled back with that laboured action 

 which indicates an objection being raised at the 

 other end. To have got right among the schnapper 

 at once seems too good to be true, and so^indeed 

 it proves, for a groan from the stern, where these 

 linesjhave been busiest, proclaims that the booty 

 is not " right colour." " Right colour " means 

 scarlet, the livery of the schnapper and of many 

 other Australian fishes, including the little nanny- 

 gai, which, after the schnapper itself, is the most 

 welcome, since it is regarded as the harbinger of 

 the larger fish, being found on the same ground 

 and taking the same baits. Association of this 

 kind between two different kinds of fishes is not 

 uncommon, and at home we associate the garfish 

 and mackerel in much the same way. In this 

 case, it was not even silvery morwong, red pigfish 

 or gaudy sergeant-baker ; worst of all, it was a 

 small school-shark on every line, females all of 

 them with the living young writhing inside. And 

 now two more lines are seized by sharks, one 

 parting in an ugly rush that means a monster. 

 Our master of ceremonies gives the signal " Up 

 lines!" and, having acted on it, we steam away 



