10 
COLLECTING SEA FISH AT MOMBASA 
returns whence it came after the manner of the common 
herring in the Atlantic. 
Now I come to speculate a little. I well know that specula- 
tion is very bad science ; still I am not writing a scientific article 
about these Game fish, but speaking more from a general point 
of view. 
My readers will be acquainted with the American Tuna of 
the Pacific coast, of which there are three varieties : Thurnus 
alalonga, with the very attenuated side-fins ; Thunnus 
thynus, which is the name of the giant Tuna; and Thunnus 
maculatus, or yellow-finned Tuna. 
In the Mediterranean we again find the Tuna under the 
name of Tunni. This fish is T. mediterraneus and known in the 
Mediterranean as Thon. It has never been known to take any 
sort of bait and is there captured in wire nets. 
Further East still, we find a fish apparently identical with 
T. alalonga , or long-finned Tuna, in the neighbourhood of 
Aden, where the Somalis fish for them and sun-dry them for 
commercial purposes. 
Then again at Malindi, on the moufch of the Athi or Sabaki 
River, reports have reached me of a fish that most closely 
resembles a Tuna in appearance, habits, and behaviour when 
hooked. 
Off Mombasa the same fish is known to be present from 
December to February. 
My informants have given me minute descriptions of the 
methods they employ for their capture, and have identified the 
fish from large illustrations I have shown them. Apparently 
there are two species of Tunas to be found off Mombasa, the 
long finned (T. alalonga) known as ‘ Djodari ’ at Mombasa, and 
the yellow-finned Tuna (T. viaculatus) known as Sayhaywa. 
At Mombasa they feed largely on flying fish, which is also 
their chief diet off the coast of California, where sportsmen 
resort in large numbers and use dead flying-fish as bait. 
Most unfortunately I was not fishing at Mombasa during 
the months these fish were passing through those waters, 
so that all I have to tell you about them is open to a certain 
amount of doubt ; but at the same time I feel convinced that a 
true Game sporting type of ocean-going fish awaits anyone who 
