Oct. 18, 1913. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
497 
there is a curiously striped or mottled dog fish, 
which is a nuisance at times. 
Of the above, the John Brown, the red and 
white stumpnose, the galgueon and the two 
dassies are seldom caught on anything except 
red bait. The galgueon comes in with the south¬ 
east wind, and is caught when and where the 
sand is thick in the water. The remainder will 
take any bait when in a taking mood, the steinjes 
and Hottentots often destroying one’s bait by 
their numbers before a big fish gets a chance 
of seeing it. For them a small hook and a small 
bait are required, and a steady draw, not a sud¬ 
den strike, at the bite. 
Of the wandering fish, the following is a 
rough list: The “harder,” a mullet-like fish, 
which fights like a trout. Fresh mackerel or 
small pieces of the entrails and liver of the 
snoek are the best baits. The small boys swing 
them out with a short line on a reed or bamboo 
so fast that it is not unusual for them to catch 
fifty in a couple of hours. I fished with a float, 
which I cast out about thirty yards, and lost 
many, through the hook breaking their mouths 
in their struggles, but it is better sport than 
whipping them out. The mossbanker, a fish of 
the mackerel tribe, running up to three pounds 
or four pounds, with a mouth like paper. With¬ 
out a landing net, one loses three out of four 
when lifting them out. The mackerel, the same 
fish as is caught off our home coasts, fights mag¬ 
nificently when hooked on light tackle. A float 
is necessary for all these three fish, because they 
usually feed near the surface. The remainder 
require a twisted wire trace above the hook. The 
elf, a fish of the shad type, running up to five 
pounds or six pounds, is a magnificent fighter. 
When hooked, he often swims so fast that a 
slack line is unavoidable, and one thinks the fish 
has got off. He has been known to swim in 
and bite through the reel line well above the wire 
trace. The albacore, locally called the yellow- 
tail, is also a fine fighter, running up to about 
thirty pounds. These two fish feed sometimes at 
the bottom, and sometimes near the surface, so 
that the bottom fisher may catch them while the 
float fisher does not get a bite, and vice versa. 
Geelbec, running up to twenty-five pounds, and 
the kabbeljaamv, running over 120 pounds, are 
both bottom feeders. These are what are termed 
Cape salmon. Red and white steenbras complete 
the list. The red steenbras goes up to over too 
pounds. White steenbras are not very common, 
and I saw none over five pounds. They are bot¬ 
tom feeders, but the white steenbras seem to 
assemble at spots where fresh water runs in. 
The snoek, running up to about twelve pounds, 
is the staple fish of the professional. He usually 
swims in large shoals in deep water, but is a 
surface feeder, and, when hungry, will rush at 
anything trailed through the water and swallow 
it, but when biting shyly he will hold the bait 
in his mouth for some little time and drop it 
if he feels resistance as he swims off. But as 
he is armed with three teeth each one-half inch, 
projecting at right angles from the roof of his 
mouth, in addition to very many teeth round his 
jaws, he usually rakes the bait off the hook. Now 
and then, in the winter, a few come into Kalk 
Bay, and two were caught last winter by red 
fishermen by trolling from or near Tafel Bank. 
One took my bait, when I was fishing with a 
float, and although T let him run out about 
twenty yards, I lost him when I struck. A 
scratch from a snoek’s tooth invariably means 
blood poisoning, so that the professional expert, 
fishing with a hand line from a boat, swings the 
snoek into “chancery” under his left arm, dis¬ 
engages and throws overboard the barbless hook 
baited with shark skin he uses, and then knocks 
the snoek on the head. Most of these South 
African fish have sharp spines, which are liable 
to cause nasty sores, and care in handling is 
necessary. 
In addition to the above a few gurnet, like 
our home fish, and running up to a couple of 
pounds, come close in shore at Kalk Bay in the 
winter, and a few are caught annually by rod 
fishers. 
There is a fish called the milk fish, very like 
a John Dory, which feeds on fry, and is often 
seen, but never takes bait. He has a mouth like 
a sack, and rushes at a bunch in the shoal of fry. 
Fie is sometimes speared. Also there is a sole, 
which is speared by a deaf and dumb native, who 
is a semi-idiot in most things, but has an extra 
“fishing sense.” Fie waits until rain has fallen, 
and fresh water is running in, and a spring tide 
coincides, and proceeds to tread round certain 
rocks at low tide with a straightened fish hook 
bound to a stick for a spear, which he places 
between his big and first toe. When he feels a 
sole under his foot, he jabs the spear into it, 
keeping the fish quiet with his foot until he can 
seize it and put it in his bag. 
Of useless fish there are the sharks, of which 
there are several species, the giant ray, the. 
whiptail, or stingray, and I found a very small 
specimen of the electric ray washed up on the 
beach at Fishhoek. 
The local method of casting and fixing the 
reel may be interesting. The all metal redupli¬ 
cating reel, with an optional check and drag, is 
the commonest, but I prefer a wooden Notting¬ 
ham, with optional check. The custom is to fish 
with the reel uppermost, handle, of course, to 
the right, because the right-hand thumb can be 
used to check in casting and when playing a fish. 
To make a cast, the fisherman stands at right 
angles to the direction in which he wishes to 
throw, and using the spring of the rod as much 
as possible swings the bait from rear to front 
with his thumb on the reel, until two-thirds of 
the swing is completed, then lets the line run 
out, “feeling” the reel all the time, and checking 
gradually with the thumb as the lead and bait 
lose their momentum, thereby preventing an 
overrun. In this way a cast of seventy yards 
can be made. A beginner should practice on a 
sandy stretch until he gets into the swing and 
can cast at least thirty-five yards accurately. The 
float I used I made out of a piece of cork from 
the seine nets which I picked up. I cut it to 
shape, and fixed a two-ounce piece of lead and 
a swivel to the lower end, with twisted brass 
wire, with a loop in the wire at the top end. To 
this float I could fix a light line for harders and 
mackerel, or a twisted wire trace and big hook 
for large fish. 
I have given the principal fish and the most 
useful, but have not mentioned, by any means, 
the whole possible catalogue. My endeavor is 
to explain briefly what most newcomers have to 
learn, and to help them as far as I can. 
Canadian Government has passed appropria¬ 
tions of about $t,000,000 annually for next ten 
years for agricultural research. 
The Water-Makers’ Market. 
Hebron, one of the oldest cities in Pales¬ 
tine, has always been famous for its Oriental 
water-bottles, made of goat-skins. Here are to 
be found large tanneries where these receptacles 
are turned out by the thousand, the “water- 
makers’ market” being situated to the east of 
the ancient city. Lying upon the ground in 
row's may be seen between two hundred and 
three hundred goat-skins awaiting purchasers. 
Each skin is inflated, either with water or with 
air, so that the buyer may know it is perfectly 
water-tight. The majority of the skins used 
come from Arabia, while a large number are 
also received from the Lebanons. They are 
brought to Hebron by the camel caravans, and 
are purchased by the tanneries and turned into 
bottles. They pass through many processes, and 
a tanner will spend a week upon a single skin 
before it is rendered water-tight and serviceable. 
From Hebron these odd “bottles” are sent to 
all parts of the East, thousands going down into 
Egypt and the Soudan every year. They are 
also used as rafts. A number of inflated skins 
are attached to a light wooden frame, which 
then not only readily floats, but is capable of 
carrying quite a heavy load. Such craft are 
to be seen upon the rivers or Syria and also 
upon the Euphrates and Tigris. 
THE TOP RAIL. 
A few days ago I was asked by a foreigner, 
"Why do you say, ‘Two herrings’ and ‘Two 
soles’ and not ‘Two cods’ and ‘Two salmons’?” 
I do not think my answer was very satisfactory, 
but the question suggested the thought that there 
are several cases in which it would be difficult 
to say whether there is anything like a consensus 
of opinion as to whether a plural form of the 
name of a fish is admissible. We all speak of 
soles, herrings, sprats, lampreys and anchovies; 
the singular form never, I believe, doing service 
for the plural. No one, I think, says mackerels, 
cods, salmons, trouts, breams, shads, carps, 
plaices, basses, barbels. Sturgeon, perch, mullet, 
pike, turbot, tunny and skate have not unusually 
the plural form in s. Fishermen and fish¬ 
mongers are inclined to avoid the plural form 
in some instances where it is employed by the 
majority of educated people. In some cases 
there is considerable uncertainty—this I have 
ascertained by means of a fair number of tests. 
Among them are carps, shads, tenches. Com¬ 
pilers of English grammars, so far as my ex¬ 
perience goes, in treating of plural forms, of 
nouns, make no note of the names of fish which 
do not vary in the plural. 
Grizzly King. 
Diamond exports from South Africa for the 
first half of 1913 totalled $30,113,000, an increase 
of over $10,000,000 over same period of 1912. 
