THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[FiiB 1, 1901. 
bers ; other enemies, too, are on the look-out 
for them— aniongst them heing harracouta, 
garfish and horse-mackerel ; and further out 
to sea seer-fish— but tlie kokari are the most 
numerous. But here come some of the fishing- 
boats, paddUng as if for dear life now that 
they see the fish are on the feed— so we will 
watch one of them at work. Arrived near 
the jetty, the fisherman slings bis basket over 
the side of the boat, prepares his net for a 
cast, and looks out for a good shoal of sar- 
dines. As tlie sea is teeming with theui this 
does not take long, and in a few minutes the 
net is hauled on board with a goodly supply 
in its meshes ; these are quickly transferred 
to the basket, all hands working busily at the 
job. One or two more judicious casts, enough 
Jive baits have been caught to enable a start 
to be made, and our fishermnn begins busi- 
ness. Squatting down in the bows, he un- 
coils some twenty yards of line, and baits his 
hook with a live sardine by hooking it care- 
fully under the back fin. Keepmg his baited 
hook in the water alongside him, he throw.? 
out two or three sardines about twenty yards 
from the boat to |attract the kokari. These 
.are taken almost immediately, and oxit go a 
few more, followed this time t)y the hooked 
one, which is dexterously cast into the midst 
of the others ; there are several boils and 
splashes on the water, then the line tautens, 
our friend strikes, but is too late,_ and his 
bait is gone. He hauls in the line with 
feverish haste and repeats his cast; this time 
with niore success, and is at once fast in a good 
fish which dashes madly out to sea as fast as 
it can go. 
The canoe follows as quickly as the paddlers 
can make it travel. The fisherman, holding 
his hand well up, lets the line slip through 
his finger-r, feeling his fish all the time, and 
not letting him taive out line too easily. At 
the same time he excitedly screams contradic- 
tory directions to his crew, and curses them 
freely foi' not going fast enougli. His object 
is to peep over his fish as much as possible. 
After going about a couple of hundred yards 
or so he gets a pull at his fish, and begins to 
recover some of his line, the boat still fol- 
lowing every movement of the quarry, and, 
when skilfully handled, doing half the work 
of killing it. After another good run or two 
the fish shows signs of being done, and he is 
gradually brought gasping to the surface. 
The man in the centre of the boat drops his 
paddle and takes uji the spear— a sharp 
stab and a hoist, and the fish lies quiver- 
ing in the bottom of the l)oat , . . a 
grand fish he is, too, close on 201b. weight. 
Locally called a kokari, he belongs to the 
Caranx family, has a large dee)5 head and 
powerful jaw arn.ed with numerous teeth ; 
he is deep and somewhat fiat-sided in the 
body. His pectoral fins are peculiar, being 
long and curved, and shaped somewhat like 
a sickle ; he fines off very much towards the 
tail, which terminates in a large fork, and 
in some sjjecies the root of the tail is armed 
on either side with a S(n't of sharp bony 
ridge. The colour varies, a silvery hue pre- 
dominating, but some are of f,he most beauti- 
ful ultramarine blue. Altogether he presents 
a very g.ame and handsome appearance, 
•^vhich as lur ixfi jus fighting qualities go he 
does not belie, as harder running fish it would 
be difficult to find. 
The boat is soon back at the jetty again 
ready to recoumience operations, and with 
decent luck our friend will have two or three 
more fine fish before he leaves off, v^arying in 
size for 7 to 20 lii. It was very entertaining 
to watch them at work on a day when the 
fish were taking well, and I need hardly say 
that some of us who were keen fishermen 
were not content v,ith watching only, but 
soon followed their example, using rods in- 
stead of handlines, but otherwise fishing in 
the s.ime manner; and very good spoit we 
frequently had, which made amends for 
being stationed in such an out of-the-way 
part of the world. 

COFFEE PLANTING IN SUMATRA. 
We are always pleased to hear from our old 
friend " W. T. McK." Vv ho, after leaving troops 
of friends behind in Ceylon, has been so many 
years now in Sumatra witliout making a 
fortune. He sends us .as usual a grajihic 
letter (given in oiu' daily and Tropical Agri- 
culturist) with some useful statistics, .showiug 
that his district of " Serdang " has al)OUt 
10,000 acres under Liberian coffee. The 
photogra])h he sends, shows magnificent 
giant coffee trees (backed by Albizzias) 
laden with croj) ; for, of course, the 
soil is superior to anything we have in 
Cej'hm. But then the market price of 
" coffee " has, for a long time, been even 
more disappointing than that of tea ! 
ELEPHANTS IN BURMA. 
The year 1899 was a most disastrous one for the 
Government elephants in Burma, rumliers of wliich 
died from an outbreak of a disease believed to be 
anthrax ; contractors and others suffered similarly, 
and elephants to replace losses cannot now ije 
easily purchased. Several officers have therefore 
sugtjested instituting Keddah operations in Uurma 
and the Local Government is now in correspond- 
ence on the matter with the Snprintendent of 
Keddah Operations in India. It seems clear, 
however, that operations in Burma will not be 
easy to arrange as there is no chance of success, 
unless trained men are employed on the work and 
money liberally spent. 
The Forest Officer in charge of the Mu Division 
writes : — 
" The Bombay-Burma, Trading Corporation, 
Limited, increased their stock of elephants in the 
division to almost 100 beasts. Contractors and 
licensees, however, are unprovided with these 
useful beasts, and cannot always pay R3,500 for a 
tusker and R2,500 for a cow, which are the pre- 
sent prices. Advances mi<.dit do something in 
improving extraction, but one looks with longing 
at the three or four herds of from 40 to SO beasts 
each which roam over the division, and which are 
rapidly being shot down by Burnirtn hunters for 
the sake 9f a few rupees worth of flash, /iheddah 
work, too, would be especially ea.sy in this divi- 
sion, as for instance in the Thaw basin, where 
heavy forest is not continuous and the herds are 
often restricted to small isolated areas." — Forest 
Admimstration in Burma for the yew 1898-99, 
