72 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



you're not quite sure what. Six feet of concentrated 

 activity is tearing through the water Hke a torpedo des- 

 troyer charged with electricity. Slap, dash, whizz — ^round 

 he comes to the right ; and before you have swung your 

 chair about to follow him he has changed his mind like a 

 flash and is back again on your left. Slap, dash, bangity- 

 bang — he is trying to tear the rod out of your hand. 

 Never jumping out of the water or boring deep down be- 

 neath it, this sea-tiger describes a series of intricate 

 figures and bewildering curves a few feet from the 

 surface ; twisting and turning, turnmg and twisting, 

 with one or two long rushes thrown in as a variation, 

 that pull the rod top nearly into the water and leave you 

 gasping with bewilderment : and so the breathless fight 

 continues till his mad fury is spent. 



Add to it all, the fact that the sea, when the queen-fish 

 is in a humour to bite, is always clear and smooth, so that 

 its burnished sides are plainly visible to the enchanted 

 angler even many yards away ; and you have a picture, poor 

 indeed as compared with the mad bewildering reality; 

 but at any rate some sort of a picture of what this queen 

 of fish is Hke. From the accompanying photograph of 

 the smaller of the pair caught * (48lbs.) the reader may 

 easily judge of the possibilities of sport which a hundred- 

 pounder would afford. 



There are other fish on these banks to test the skill 

 and powers of endurance of the enthusiast. Barracudas 

 (Sphyroena barracuda) swarm in their dozens, and a 

 barracuda will give as good sport as a pike, which it so 

 very closely resembles. A good specimen will run to a 

 length of six feet, and will weigh sixty pounds or over. 

 They have just the same hungry and wicked look as their 

 better known brethren in fresh water, and when in the 

 mood will dash at anything moving. They also have the 

 merit of being eatable, a fact not to be made light of when 

 you are far away from a fishmonger. Then there are 



* This fish may be seen mounted in the Fish Gallery of the Natiira 

 History Museum. No attempt has been made, however, to reproduce 

 its true colouring. 



