APPENDIX. 241 
I nearly had a bit of excitement one evening, however, 
off Aden, where our steamer had brought up 
temporarily rather close to the African shore. sana 
It was only acouple of weeks after the last shark accident 
had befallen the small divers who immediately surround 
each boat as soon as the anchor is down. On a stout 
line and hook snooded on wire-served hemp I lowered a 
whole mullet of about a pound in weight straight from 
the ice-chest, and, as fishing was out of the question with 
so much disturbance on deck, I let the tempting morsel 
down through the port-hole of my cabin and made the 
line fast to the bunk. The bait lay at the bottom un- 
touched for several minutes, after which I left the cabin 
for a moment, returning to find the line straining and 
stretched to the utmost it would bear. I got my head 
and arms out of the port and put a steady pressure on 
the gentleman below, who was boring like a pollack, only 
a pollack the size of a full-grown giraffe. I think my 
notion was to summon my cabin steward and get him 
to pass the line clear on to the deck overhead, when I 
should possibly be able to haul the shark. I could not, 
however, get at the electric bell without leaving hold of 
the line, which, fearing a sudden rush, I dared not think 
of. To cut the story short, I held on to that fish for 
nearly ten minutes and at last began to gain steadily, 
hauling in quite three fathoms without much resistance. 
From the weight, however, I knew it was a shark of large 
size ; and there was something so unutterably disgusting in 
the notion of bringing it face to face with me in the 
gathering darkness and at such close quarters that—I 
have regretted it ever since—I let the line run out again, 
which so encouraged the brute at the other end that it 
wrenched itself free. 
The African fishing, however, that is most likely to 
interest Englishmen is the sea-fishing, deservedly 
famous, at the Cape. For the following notes “Gio g 
I am indebted to Mr. H. A. Bryden, whose pope 
writings on all kinds of African sport are so 
widely appreciated. He writes :— 
“There is probably no part of the world where better 
or more abundant sea-fishing is to be obtained than at 
the Cape of Good Hope. ‘The seas there absolutely 
R 
