Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/213

1769 the most glossy that can be got, the inner or naturally bright side being put undermost. In Fig. 2, b is a tuft of white dog's or hog's hair, which serves, maybe, to imitate the tail of a fish. These hooks require no bait: they are used with a fishing-rod of bamboo. The people having found by the flight of birds, which constantly attend shoals of bonitos, where the fish are, paddle their canoes as swiftly as they can across them, and seldom fail to take some. This Indian invention seems far to exceed anything of the kind that I have seen among Europeans, and is certainly more successful than any artificial flying fish or other thing which is generally used for taking bonitos. So far, it deserves imitation at any time when taking bonitos is at all desirable.

The other sort of hook which they have is made likewise of mother-of-pearl, or some hard shell, and as they cannot make them bearded as our own, they supply that fault by making the points turn much inwards, as in the annexed figure. They have them of all sizes, and catch with them all kinds of fish very successfully, I believe. The manner of making them is very simple; every fisherman makes them for himself.