CATCHING SHARKS FLYING-FISH. 337 



has often pursued this route with success, and passed twice 

 near the spot assigned to the Bonetta shoal without perceiv- 

 ing any indication of shoal-water. The north-east trade 

 between the islands occasionally veers to east, and brings 

 from the African coast clouds of sand, which covers the rig- 

 ging on the side next the shore. After losing the north-east 

 trade, the weather generally becomes very sultry, with fre- 

 quent heavy showers and squalls. Long calms are often 

 experienced ; and the occasional breezes which spring up 

 are of short duration and most uncertain. This kind of 

 weather is called by sailors the doldrums. 



The tedium of this part of the voyage is often enlivened 

 by the capture of a shark or dolphin. In a large Indiaman 

 full of troops, the scene which ensues upon taking the first 

 shark is most amusing. The huge animal, sometimes twelve 

 feet in length, is hoisted in amid the shouts of the recruits, 

 who all crowd round the victim. The Jacks, who always 

 endeavour to play off a trick on the soldiers, take this oppor- 

 tunity of making a rush behind them, — down they all go, 

 head over heels, and some poor devil finds himself hugging 

 in a close embrace the ravenous monster of the deep, with 

 forty or fifty of his comrades heaped on him. The beautiful 

 little fish called the pilot-fish, which always accompanies (or 

 rather precedes) the shark, has been known to follow a ship 

 for six weeks after the shark to which it belonged was taken ! 

 The flying-fish are seen in large flocks near the line. Single 

 ones sometimes fly on board. They are good eating, and 

 the mode of catching them at the island of Anna Bona is 

 curious : The head of some large fish, such as the albacore, 

 is hung even with the water's edge, to the side of a canoe, 

 which collects the flying fish in great numbers ; the fisher- 

 man stands up in the canoe, dives into the midst of the fish, 

 and comes up generally with one in each hand.* 



* This singular manner of catcliinj fish brings to mind a still more 

 remarkable mode of fishing practised in China : the fisherman is furnished 

 ■with a very finely tapered rod; the line is considerably longer than the 

 rod. The hook is fixed to the side of a piece of lead in shape and size like 

 the little finger. The fish are about three inches in length, and live in 

 holes on a mud bank over which the water flows and ebbs. The fisher- 

 man stands on the mud at low water, watching the fish, and the moment 

 one is seen within distance popping up its head, the hue is thrown with 

 great dexterity, and nine times out of ten the fish is hooked in the side 

 by a jerk of the hand,— like tipping a fly off the leader's ear with a four- 

 in-hand whip 1 

 Vol. III.— F f 



