A VISIT TO FERNANDO DO NORONHA. 47 



season, certain bays being more frequented than others by the 

 females. The sea swarms with fish of all sizes, forms, and 

 colours ; in fact, the islands have been known as a good fishing- 

 ground for nearly two hundred years. The convicts employ much 

 of their time in fishing from the rocks and from little catamarans. 

 Among the most conspicuous fish are tbose of the genus Murcena. 

 which attain an immense size ; one of the biggest we saw was 

 black, and about ten feet long, much resembling a large eel. 

 There is said to be also a blue one. A black and yellow one of 

 comparatively small size, and not eatable, was often caught under 

 stones. One day two boys caught an immense Serranus, as large 

 as a good-sized pig : it was sold for about seven shillings. Sharks 

 are very common round the island, but do not attack the bathers. 

 On one occasion we saw a very fine White Shark, about thirteen 

 feet long, cruising about under a rock from which a convict was 

 fishing, much to the latter's annoyance, as it was devouring the 

 fish attracted by his bait. Some very large Rays used to frequent 

 the bay at the foot of the Peak, where we used to bathe ; they 

 would come in quite close to the shore, and their presence was 

 announced by a rush of small fish on to the sand, seeking to 

 escape them. They never molested us, though on one occasion 

 one came within a few yards of me as I was swimming in the surf. 

 The convicts harpoon them. 



The rock-pools swarm with fish of many colours — crimson, 

 red, blue and orange, grey, black, yellow. Of these we caught a 

 considerable number, partly with a hand-net, and more easily by 

 the unsportsmanlike but eminently satisfactory process of beating 

 up with a club the stem and roots of a wild vetch with silky grey 

 leaves and pink flowers, and stirring up the rock-pools with the 

 fragments. The result of this was that the fish became stupefied and 

 were quickly caught. It not only saved a great deal of time, but 

 also enabled us to procure many fish which at low tide lay hidden 

 in crevices of coral in the rock-pools, and would otherwise have 

 been quite unprocurable. Of course the pool was only spoilt for 

 fish for one day, for the next tide would wash out all traces of the 

 poison vetch. 



The coral-reef, it need hardly be said, abounds also in 

 invertebrate life. Mollusks are plentiful ; Chitons, Mussels, 

 Cones, Limpets, Trochi, and many other beautiful shells were 



