356 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, XI1t, 
plainly and clearly the principles of the ship’s “sea rod,” and [ am told 
that there is alsoa description of the ship’s “sea rod” in the “ Practical 
Letters to Young Sea Fishers ” by John Bickerdyke. However, as the above- 
mentioned author was principally responsible for the greater part of the 
first mentioned book, I have no doubt that the two descriptions are very 
much alike. Those sailor men who do fish at sea have each and every one 
of them their own rigs-up and each thinks his own the best, I have seen 
and tried several, and I do not know that there was a great dea! of difference 
among them, While Iam on this subject of authorities, there comes into 
my mind the name of one man, pre-eminently fitted by his early training, 
who I am sure could deal with this subject in a manner that would fascinate 
his readers if only he would. I refer here to the talented author of the 
“Cruise of the Cachelot, ” “ The Ways of a Ship,” and other articles, all 
dealing with life at sea, and I hope that if this should meet his eye that he 
will seriously consider it, I read the “ Cruise of the Cachelot” shortly 
after it was published, and was perfectly fascinated and entranced, and I 
hope sincerely that some day or other he may be induced to give us a 
companion volume dealing with this subject. The principle underlying 
this deep sea-fishing is, however, in all cases the same. The larger ocean 
fish are all piscivorous, and the only way to induce them to take a bait is 
to offer them a decent imitation of some small sea fish, 
Many and wondrous are the imitations that are made, and yet they nearly 
always consist of bunting, red or white, or perhaps both, One of the best 
and most successful baits I have ever come across was originally shewn to 
me by Lieut. E , R.N., who concocted it himself and who I believed 
seldom used anything else, and he is one of the most successful of our deep 
sea-fishers.. It was a weird and wonderful tout ensemble. A hook about 
six Inches in length, with the body wrapped and dressed with cotton stufting 
till it assumed the shape of a large cigar, the whole was then covered with 
silver paper or tin foil, and finally wings were added of white bunting with 
a dash of red underneath, When completed it looked something like a huge 
‘* Alexandria,” only with the wings, red and white, instead of the blue- 
green of the orthodox fly, I passed on this dressing afterwards to one or 
two special chums, who are still at sea,and who had the chance occasion- 
ally of testing its merits, and the photographs of some of the fish they 
have from time to time caught, will give some idea of what can be 
done when fishing under these circumstances. I cannot definitely state 
whether they were all taken with this particular lure, but it may be taken 
for granted that the bait did not differ very materially from that describ- 
ed above, except. that occasionally, instead of the red and white wings, 
blue bunting was used for the upper pair and white for the lower, and 
in this case the wings were brought down along the body and tied together 
at the bend of the hook, to give it a more fish-like appearance. 
