WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 169 



for we only see three or four at a time, as they appear in turn 

 on the top of the swell. Now the sail in front drops, and the 

 boat is like the others, with the mast down, and oars out, 

 and little figures standing out silhouetted against the sky 

 for a second, then lost to sight. In another ten minutes 

 we have joined the fleet, and dip our sail and stow our mast 

 away. 



And the colour of these mariners ! We can hardly begin 

 to fish, so great is our desire to gloat on the appearance of 

 each boat its weathered brilliant colours and its crew as it 

 appears in its turn over the back of a blue glittering swell. 

 Camara da Lobos men all wear wide straw hats, with a broad 

 black ribbon round them, so their brown faces are in shadow ; 

 their shirts, originally white, are tinted like old ivory by many 

 washings and voyages, so were their cotton trousers, and 

 tattered and patched most wonderfully. The boats are 

 striped yellow and blue, with perhaps magenta, and blue 

 oars ; coarse enough colours they would look under a northern 

 sun, but here, with the complementary tints from the strong 

 light, and all repeated by reflections in the blue sea, they 

 become a sight to rejoice anyone with half an eye. The 

 fishing, however, soon engrossed our attention. 



As a preliminary to tunny-fishing you have to catch large 

 mackerel as bait and smaller mackerel to throw out into the 

 sea when the tunny comes along in order to keep them in 

 your neighbourhood. For the small fry we fished with a 

 yard of cane and a yard of line and a small hook baited with 

 little cubes of mackerel. The captain chopped up some 

 of these into a fine paste on a board with a machete and put 

 the paste into the water to draw more fish ; as it faded away 

 down into the clear green depths, swarms of these little fish, 

 about four to the pound, dashed to and fro, eating it, and 

 every now and then one would take our bait, when there was 

 a flash of silver in the water, and out he came to join his 

 neighbours in a bucket. 



Another of our crew, " Bow," we will call him, rigged 

 a longer hand-line and fished deep, and soon pulled up 

 some magnificent spotted mackerel. This bait-catching was 

 apparently the object of the early morning start large 



