360 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XILI, 
are generally cut off and kept (the former for the sake of the jaws and teeth) 
as trophies, and sometimes you will find some one energetic enough to take 
out the backbone, part of which, when dried and cleaned, is made into a 
walking stick, by threading the various joints upon a stout piece of iron or 
steel wire. The rest of the body is generally thrown overboard, 
Having dealt with the above different modes of catching the ocean fish, I 
come now to quite a different class of fishing which is never to be obtained 
in Indian waters, and which perhaps on that account I ought not to include 
here, but as this paper is intended to deal with open sea fishing, I must be 
excused for touching cn it, I mention it here, but at the same time I should 
like to say, that I do not approve of it, and deprecate the practice on every 
possible occasion, I refer to the practice s0 common among passengers and 
seamen alike of fishing for the ocean birds. Sailing ships bound from the 
United Kingdom for the Australian Colonies and New Zealand generally 
go out by the Cape of Good Hope route and return via Cape Horn. This 
is done in order to take advantage of the prevailing winds, When you get 
away south into the “ roaring forties,” you experience a strong westerly wind, 
which is nearly always blowing pretty hard. Down in these southerly 
regions, hundreds of miles from any Jand, you come upon the home of many 
of the finest and most beautiful of the sea-birds—gulls large and small, 
frigate-birds, boobies, molly-hawks, and last but certainly not least the 
noble albatross. All these birds congregate near the ship, and wheel and 
soar and scream about her from day’s end to day’s end, and nothing is thrown 
overboard that is not at once taken if fit for food. 
‘Hence it is that as a rule it is so easy to catch these creatures. I 
always maintain that it is a useless and cruel practice, as they are not 
wanted, in fact are not fit for food, and unless it be that an occasional 
specimen may be required for some scientific purpose, there is no excuse for 
the practice, There is no more beautiful sight to be seen than these wild 
sea-birds, wheeling and turning and soaring above the foam-crested waves 
in dark and gloomy weather, and I have watched them for hours with the 
keenest delight, Perfectly at home amid the tumultuous elements, alighting 
at times on the breakers, and floating as easily as a fragment of cork or as 
lightly as a bubble, they sport in and out of the tempest-tossed seas, and give 
one the impression ef being as much ocean-born creatures as the very fish 
themselves, All of them from the smallest to the greatest can be caught. 
A small piece of pork put upon the hook, and let out with a good long length 
of line will nearly always be all that is required. No sooner is it over than 
the birds make a swoop, several perhaps at a time, and fight over it until the 
strongest prevails, seizes the morsel and pays the penalty. They are quickly 
hauled on board, the hook taken out, rebaited, and the same thing goes on 
again. Very few of these ocean birds when put down on deck are able to 
rise and fly away, on account of the length of their wings and the shortness 
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