OCEAN FISH AND OCEAN FISHING 93 



hoop fastened to a line — a clumsy but effective 

 apparatus. 



With a rope tied securely round our waists, the 

 doctor (a stout, elderly man) and myself used 

 hour after hour to endeavour from the mizzen 

 channels ' to capture specimens — no easy matter 

 while the vessel slipped along. Directly a desir- 

 able object came anywhere near we went for 

 it, the doctor prodding not very deftly with his 

 net, while mine, reaching further, often dipped 

 up something. Even when my companion did 

 manage to get his net under a minute specimen, 

 he could not secure it, as the, mesh was too large, 

 whereas in mine they stuck fast, and I scored. 



We, of course, had the use of our hands, but 

 when the ship rolled we rolled with her, the water 

 once submerging us to the waist. But we cared 

 not ; our only concern was lest a stray and hungry 

 shark should choose to make a snap at us. 



Most of the organisms we caught were unknown 

 to us, and even with the help of the doctor's 

 library could not be identified. However, two 

 delightful little creatures we discovered to be 

 respectively Hyalea Tridentata and lanthina. 

 The former was a fragile, turtle-shaped, translucent 



' Broad, stout, wooden ledges set at right angles outside 

 the ship to spread the shrouds that are attached to them. 



