302 HARBOUR SHARKS. 



ledged M'untu's rule, and with the " united kind regards" 

 of the suite they trudged off; M'untu in the most delicate 

 way having left a gourd snuff-box with my Kaffir, to be 

 presented to me when he was out of sight. I heard that 

 game was plentiful near the kraal of this Kaffir, and 

 shortly after, while the friendship was warm, went down 

 the coast to see him. We had very fair sport with buck 

 and buffalo. 



The shooting amusement at Natal could be changed 

 sometimes, as the fishing in the bay was excellent. With 

 a boat anchored in the channel a large number of fish 

 of different kinds were often caught rock-cod in great 

 numbers especially, and a fish there called a kiel-back, 

 very like a cod in appearance, and weighing generally 

 twenty-five or thirty pounds. Sharks are frequently seen 

 in the bay, and on the bar at the entrance they swarm, 

 presenting anything but an agreeable prospect, in case 

 of an upset in the surf-boat. I have heard that on 

 the outside of the harbour they have frequently taken men 

 down, while inside they are considered harmless. Why 

 they should thus change their dispositions in so short a 

 distance it is difficult to say, but that they do not make a 

 habit of attacking bathers in the bay I am certain, as I 

 was in the water morning and evening, and frequently 

 swam out a considerable distance from the shore thus 

 offering a good bite to a shark. I believe the reason to 

 be, that inside the bay there are enormous shoals of small 

 fish, so that a shark could feast for months on them and 

 scarcely show that he had diminished their numbers. He 

 does not, therefore, suffer from an unsatisfied appetite so 



