CHAPTER XXX 
AFRIC’S CORAL STRAND Red (Sea Coast) 
(i) “Big-Game Fishing” 
As the big- liner steers an intricate course through 
outlying coral-reefs, the voyager speedily realises that 
he approaches a New World. The sea-birds around his 
ship first bespeak that fact, and the translucence of the 
depths beneath transcends anything that may be seen 
in Europe. At five fathoms — or even at a dozen— 
minute details of the sea-bed are recognisable. Then, on 
the mirror-like expanse of the inner seas—sheltered by 
reefs outside—he sees strange blotches which, like islets 
of the Sargasso, dot the tranquil surface. The precise 
nature of these islets is revealed so soon as one of them 
is seen to dissolve under a series of violent eruptions— 
as though a torpedo had exploded in its midst. Each 
“ islet ” is merely a mass of surface-basking sardines ; and 
this particular assemblage some submarine beast of prey 
of terrific speed and power is gulping down by bucketfuls. 
Should the spectator be an angler, the ambition to hold 
one of these predatory monsters on rod-and-line follows 
spontaneously. 
Neither technical knowledge nor experience entitle 
the author to enlarge on this subject of “ big-game 
fishing.” I merely took a hand at it for a few odd days, 
and formed the opinion that when the world shall 
have resumed a peaceful course, this wild sport (despite 
drawbacks presently to be specified) may come to rank 
among the more exciting that rod-and-line have to offer. 
2 B 
885 
