Naturalist.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 373, 2 July 1903, Page 7

Naturalist.

~w —II— | f ADVENTUEE IT CAPETOWN. R#EtoNE day I was riding down from ff/aft Capetown to Simons Bay and, sQ~>fe happening to cross a ploughed field, a Boer rushed out with a big stone in his hand and need shocking language, calling me anything but a gentleman. I pulled up my horse and ; mildly expostulated with him, asking , him if he called himself a Christian to ÜBe ( such language to me, if he read his Bible , and so forth; this so astonished him that < he dropped the stone and looked quite ] meek, whereupon I went on to say,' There < is one thing I must tell you before we t part, and that is, that of all the black- c guards that 1 have come across you take t the cake!' I then whipped up my steed { and galloped off, followed by a perfect hurricane of blasphemy, and I nearly : rolled out of the saddle with laughter as 1 heard the thud of a stone behind me. When T was stationed at Calcutta the i only sport we attempted, if sport it can E be called, was hauling the seine in the tanks arßarrackpore." But'if not" sport, it was capital fun. By permission of His 0 Excellency Lord . Lansdo wne, I took a r party of blue-jackets over and dragged t some of. the ornamental waters in the p park. Oar first haul was a blank, and one p would suppose there was not a fish in the j water; but feeling sure there must be, t we spliced two seines together,, weighted g the lower end, and buoyed the other with f. bamboos, This we backed up with a third f, seine, in case fish jumped oyer the- f, bamboos. The result was most satisfactory. The fish; finding they could not dive under, attempted to jump over the net, and some of them succeeded. Present y thS water waß alive -with enormous B monsters struggling to escape, and pc- hj capionaHg.-fijrißg through the air;, ffBtJI I coxswain, was t tionß fromva-dinghy, and, having partaken" li too freely of the Vicroy's splendid hospi- t tahty, was shouting out contradictory fi orders at the top of his voice, when an fi immense fisb, making a dash for freedom, p hit him bang in the middle of the stomach, C knocking him * overboard and capsizing t the boat, i Shouts of-laughter greeted this' n performance, and .the seine was drawn I ashore, with the coxswain, the boat, and i: some cartloads of mud, .in .fhich were v several fish scaling from 301bs to 601bs p each, besides many smaller ones of. every 1 variety of shape and colour; also fresh fc water crayfish and-gigantic prawns; The. v large fish were carnation-carp, very coarse, t with a skin like leather, and scales as big a as a rupee, which no gaff would pierce. ( We repeated tne performance in some" -r other tanks, with varied success, and re- a turned on board a happy and very dirty \ party, much pleased with our day's out- a ■vag'i and grateful to the Viceroy for his g magnificent hospitality. <'"* ' j "Some- fair sport is to be had in the ? ; Andaman Islands; Snipe visit the islands t in large numbers, and-there are wild pig- I in the forests, which the natives hunt ; with poisoned airows. The origin of | tfhese ■ people is obsure; it .is said they - came originally from the' Malay Peninsula. They are small in stature, black in colour," and, :as a rule, are'quiet and in- • ■ offensive, though some of the tribes in the interior not to be trusted. Both sexes -, are destitute of "clothing, a mixture of ■ mud and red ochre being substituted. Some > of jthe girls are decidedly pretty: '. a few of them wore a girdle of leaves * fastened round the waist and hanging ] -down behind, but on grand occasions, such as the Governor's garden party, they were provided with sacks having holes , through which their legs protruded, j giving them a very comical appearance. f, Salmojt Exskmd .' ] I had a very while'; ' fishing with a prawn.; Having .hooked, as I believed, the bottom, and being unable ' to extricate,; and ave*se;'to,breaking ,myv tackle, I handed the gaffer, to try "what do; : ;Aa>he "' fared no better than I, I reluctantly gave: him the order'to^break.; : With TOisin-" ;! tention he lowed Jfcha? «&got inallihe J line he could L and steadily back,, ' when, just aa we wereSejq||citing' the fiuaf? > smash, out;sailed a fish, whit ' haa been oi!yijt:fiiiP ' the prawn P*~vi:' : 'j. : . '■■.. ■ ":'.-. .■■'-;:■.' "■■ Now this seems incredible, because no fish ' eouidatand such a Btrain without indignant ' protest; the only way I can account forlfc is that the lead which.was attached ! to the line a couple of feet or so above the ' prawn got jammed between gome rocks; ; ;sq the prawn was free, thus enabling the . fish to enjoy his repast unmolested until the lead .gpt clear, when he' must have' hada-fia«^9aT. ; I killed the fish after a ■'. "''"" " ,'. - .■.[,•■'. are now taken up by agents in Bergen, Wh<ri#tyriiout to Englishnlfen: at four times their original cost. Fortunate are -thofle^whoj-havingßeouredtheir rivers on~ " long leases, are independent ...of these «g%tlenjan. >?v . iSi '%§ * gTheff- ou|b>rn| jivefsgaiCtoleiabiy *#£ 1 \ixßm. mosquitoes, but as'M)he' gets'furfhir" north these pests increase, and on the Tana, the Beisen, and other rivers beyond the Arctic Circle they a>e;by all [accounts quite as bad'as" in Newfoundland, which is saying a gocd deal. Teout Fishikg in, Sweden. The fishing season in., Sweden embraces June,; July, Augußt and September. Ttie ice breaks, up about the middle of May, , and the' fish' are not in condition before the middle or end of June, and by September 15 the spawning season begins. But fer those four months the sport is excellent and. the .climate- superb. In • June and July it is perfectly light all through the night, and is usually so bot that it is only possible to begin fishing at 1 p.m., and continue, till midnight or the small hours of the morning j indeed, the rise usually commences at about: eleven* '■ 'pjtt. ' J :y .~-.f / ■ ■ ;.'. i • Sweden is a grand country for a poor man. fond of sport; he can live like a prjnce on J6200 a year, and enjoy such sport as would cost him a thousand in the. old country, and as such I recommend it' to retired naval officers, who as a rule I cannot afford the lux-uy of deer forests and grouse moors in Scotland. - Among the guests at the Erchless Castle was one old sportsman who was very "keen and always claimed the right to take the stalk if a stag was spied, and it was decided to play him a joke. All . bands turned out to see the sport Old Tom did his work well, and led the General by aroundabout wny to the stag. Bang went the rifle, followed by a Becond shot; up rushed Tom and seized the stag's ' head, which he lifted up, to the General's ' intense disgust The best of the joke .was, ' j,om pretended to have been taken in him- . self, and got a handsome tip r but the ' story goc about* the General was furious, ' and left the castle the next day.—Admiral ', Kennedy. 1