Strange Fish. 299 



deny the existence of the Great Sea Serpent, they confess 

 that they nurse a half belief in the monster. Why should 

 there not be such creatures ? they demand. Verily, why not? 

 If not very probable, this thing is, in their opinion, not at all 

 impossible. 



This paragraph I indited at Singapore, after a visit to the 

 fish market at dawn one delicious morning. Something of 

 the piscicultural wonders of the Malayan waters I had myself 

 seen, watching the natives fishing from the wharves ; much 

 more I heard from a certain English youth in the town. He 

 certainly drew the long bow with something of the genius of 

 a Munchausen. 



" Did you ever shoot an Argus pheasant ? " I asked him, 

 upon his telling me that he had often been at Mount Ophir, 

 the notable summit which, though forty miles in the interior 

 of the peninsula, is such a conspicuous object from the 

 Malacca roadsteads, and which is famous for its rare birds 

 and wonderful ferns. 



" Lots of 'em,'' he readily answered. " But talking of 

 pheasants," he broke off at a voluble tangent, "we were 

 lying off the coast of Borneo one morning, and, by my word, 

 I went ashore and shot two hundred and thirty birds before 

 breakfast; two hundred and thirty, sir, besides seventeen 

 deer." 



Naturally (as if I thoroughly believed the statement) I 

 remarked that this was sport, and no mistake. 



"It was so," he modestly admitted. " I had three black 

 boys loading guns for me, and when I got back to the boat 

 my hands were so knocked to pieces that I could not pull 

 an oar. The fellows on that account upset the boat." 



" A good look-out for the sharks," I hinted. 



" You talk of sharks ! See, sir, I'll tell you what : I was 

 once off the coast of West Australia, and we killed a shark. 



