866 Fauna of the Islands of Fernando de Noronha. 
The method is thus essentially trolling without a boat or spoon. 
One end of the line is tied to the fisherman’s body, the line coiled 
and held in the left hand, while the baited hook, weighted with a 
bit of lead, is whirled rapidly above the head with the right hand, 
until the centrifugal force becomes strong enough to carry the line 
out to its full length when skilfully thrown. It is then allowed 
to escape, and the lead, carrying the line with it, shoots out over 
the water and drops. The line is then hauled in as rapidly as 
possible, and this rapid hauling in generally produces a whirling 
of the bait at which the fish strike. There is “many a slip,” 
though, between hooking a fish and landing it; not that they are 
particularly game, but because the sharks are usually fishing at the 
same time and place. Not more than half the fishes I saw hooked 
here were landed entire; sometimes only half a one was hauled in, 
at others only a head, and sometimes the hook and part of the line 
were also missing. 
Standing upon one of the overhanging rocks at the western end 
of the island I have looked down into the sea when it was 
comparatively smooth and seen hundreds of enormous sharks in 
the water, gliding over and about each other in their search for 
food. 
Perhaps the most interesting vertebrate found on Fernando is a 
species of lizard—Mabina punctatas. The cultivation of almost 
all the tillable land on the island has had the tendency to drive 
these lizards into the rocky corners and uncultivated places, where 
they exist in such great numbers as to cause one to wonder how 50 
many of them manage to live on so small an island. As they are 
but little disturbed, and have no natural enemies here, they are not 
very timid. Walking over the open, rocky places where there 1s 
no vegetation, one may see the lizards withdrawing down the sides 
of the rock fragments, apparently with much reluctance, at a dis- 
tance of from three to six feet ahead of him. If he turn and look 
behind he will find them rapidly closing up the space yielded him 
for a passage. While seated upon the bare rocks I have often 
observed these little animals watching me, apparently with as much 
curiosity as I watched them, turning their heads from side to side 
as if in an effort to be wise. If I kept quiet for a few minutes 
they would creep up to me and finally upon me; if I moved, they 
