Chapt. xii. Fishing while sailing. \bb 



his dinner ready in the shape of passing shoals of little 

 fish; and, though his punctilious punctuality, and his 

 lunar time, may be inconvenient to me, there may he 

 others to whom it may be no bar to the closer cultivat- 

 ing of his acquaintance. To them therefore I introduce 

 him with this caution about punctuality. He will not 

 wait a minute for you. 



I have "heard say" that there are men who have been 

 heard to say that they have had very good sport with a 

 small fly, amongst Indian sea-fish about the size of a 

 mackerel; but I never could come across the originals. 

 If any such exist, and this book finds them out, will they 

 be such good fellows as to tell us all about it? The 

 Bass in England, and the Pamben salmon in India, both 

 take a white fly, mistaking it apparently for a small fish; 

 and as there are many sea-fish which devour fry of sorts, 

 it is quite possible that fun may be had out of sea and 

 estuary fish, with a fly. The energetic man who works 

 it out will confer a favor on posterity. 



Seer, and I believe other fish, are caught off the Indian 

 coasts much after the manner of mackerel in England. 

 A crude imitation of a fish is made out of the white 

 kernel of the cocoanut, cut to shape, and placed on a 

 big hook, or out of white rag ; and three long lines thus 

 baited are trailed well behind the vessel as she sails, 

 one from each arm of the yard, and one from the mast 

 head. They are thus kept well apart out of danger of 

 tangling. A bridle or connecting line, one from each of. 

 these lines to the deck, makes it # easy to tell if there is 



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