SCHNAPPER AND BLACK BREAM 153 



only catch small sharks and a bearded siluroid, 

 both of which seized a baited hook the moment 

 it touched the water and was carried by the swift 

 tide along the surface. Neither gave any sport, 

 or was of the least use to the ship's cook, and in- 

 deed killing such fish at all would, under other 

 circumstances have been inexcusable. Owing, 

 however, to some misunderstanding with the 

 Rockhampton lightermen, the Rakaia was delayed 

 an extra ten days in that mournful estuary, 

 and, as we were left absolutely idle, the usual 

 master of ceremonies found mischief ready to 

 our hands. 



So to the lighthouse-keeper I turned in my 

 trouble, and found him a friendly fellow, like all 

 his class. Being cut off from the society of your 

 fellow men during about eleven months and three 

 weeks of the year does not induce a churlish mood 

 when a rare visitor invades your official solitude. 

 This particular guardian of the fairway was so 

 obliging as to net me some grey mullet and " skip- 

 pers " for bait, and every morning he had a bucket 

 of them ready, all as lively as grigs. And every 

 morning, I put one on the hook and lowered it beside 

 the piles, and sat there until it was time for tiffin, 

 and in due course I was so tired of waiting for perch 

 that I would have welcomed sport with a croco- 

 dile. Every few minutes the water made a gurg- 

 ling sound among the piles, and the lighthouse-man 



