, AT FUTUNA, RECRUITING. 305 



with it, and flung out again. The change was astound- 

 ing. Up they came, two at a time, dozens and dozens of 

 them — kauwhai, cavalle, yellow-tail, schnapper — lovely 

 fish of delicious flavour and goodly size. Then one of 

 US got a fish which made him yell, '* Shark ! shark ! " 

 with all his might. He had a small line of American 

 cotton, staunch as copper wire, but dreadfully cutting to 

 the hands. When he took a turn round the loggerhead, 

 the friction of the running line cut right into the white 

 oak, but the wonderful cord and hook still held their 

 own. At last the monster yielded, coming in at first 

 inch by inch, then more rapidly, till raised in triumph 

 above the gunwale — a yellow-tail six feet long. I have 

 caught this splendid fish {Elagatis hipinnulatus) many 

 times before and since then, but never did I see such a 

 grand specimen as this one — no, not by thirty or forty 

 pounds. Then I got a giant cavalle. His broad, 

 shield-like body blazed hither and thither as I struggled 

 to ship him, but it was long ere he gave in to superior 

 strength and excellence of line and hook. 



Meanwhile, the others had been steadily increasing 

 our cargo, until, feeling that we had quite as much fish 

 as would suffice us, besides being really a good load, I 

 suggested a move towards the ship. We were laying 

 within about half a mile of the shore, where the ex- 

 tremity of the level land reached the cliffs. Up one of 

 the well-worn tracks a fine, fat goat was slowly creeping, 

 stopping every now and then to browse upon the short 

 herbage that clung to the crevices of the rock. Without 

 saying a word, Polly the Kanaka slipped over the side, 

 and struck out with swift overhead strokes for the foot 

 of the cliff. As soon as I saw what he was after, I 

 shouted loudly for him to return, but he either could not 

 or would not hear me. The fellow's seal-like ability as a 



