Love's Labour Lost 321 



little ebb that was gliding past us. In very leisurely 

 fashion one of the fish swam to it, smelt it, tasted it, 

 but when I struck he opened his mouth and I pulled 

 the bait out. Chagrined, but still hopeful, I slacked 

 away again with the same result three times. Then 

 I thought I would let him swallow it, and I waited to 

 see if he would do so. But no, he waited quite two 

 or three minutes to see, apparently, whether I would 

 pull it out of his mouth again. Finding that I did not, 

 he turned round to swim away, and I had him. And 

 by pursuing the same tactics I secured the whole 

 party in less than an hour, eleven of them, all over ten 

 pounds weight each. 



While in Nev/ Zealand I heard of an exploit on 

 the part of the Barracouta which filled me with sym- 

 pathy for the persons affected by it. It gives one 

 a very fair idea of the rapacity of these fish, and also 

 of the numerous hindrances with which public-spirited 

 individuals have often to contend in their efforts to 

 do good to their fellow-men generally. For very 

 many years it had been the object of keen desire on 

 the part of enthusiastic pisciculturists to introduce 

 the salmon and trout to the beautiful rivers of New 

 Zealand. Strangely enough, while the engirdling 

 seas of those lovely islands produce such a variety 

 and bountiful supply of fish as could be excelled by 

 no other waters in the world, the streams, eminently 

 fitted to be the homes of such valuable food fishes as 

 salmon and trout, were almost destitute of fish, at 

 any rate there were none worth taking any account 

 of, either for sport or food. So, at very great cost 

 and with an immense amount of care, quantities of 

 salmon and trout ova were shipped from home and 

 brought to New Zealand. 



In these days of swift colonial-going steamships 



21 



