Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/54

40 brought from the South Sea Islands, and deposited in the British Museum.

The most curious, as well as most serviceable hooks are made of the inner part of the shell of the Pearl-oyster, or rather large bivalves, the interior of which is pearly, called mother-of-pearl. These have great care and pains bestowed upon them: the smaller ones are cut almost circular, and made to resemble a worm, thus answering the purpose of bait as well as hook. A much larger kind is that used for the capture of the Albacore, Bonito, and Coryphene. The shank is about six inches in length, and nearly an inch in width, cut out of pearl-shell, in the shape of a small fish, and finely polished. The barb is formed separately; it is an inch and a half in length, and is firmly bound in its place by a bandage of fine flax. The line is fastened to this, and braided all along the curve of the hook, and again fastened at the head. Sometimes a number of long bristles are attached to the shell to mimic the appearance of the Flying-fish.

The line is affixed to the end of a long bamboo rod; and the anglers sitting in the stern of a light single canoe are rowed briskly over the waves. The rod is held so that the hook shall just skim the tops of the billows; the Albacore or Bonito, deceived by the resemblance, leaps after the fancied Flying-fish, and finds itself a prey. Twenty or thirty large fishes are occasionally taken by two men in this manner, in the course of a morning.

A still more ingenious mode of deception is practised upon these large Fishes, by employing a swift double canoe, from the bows of which