THE FISH PILOT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 2 March 1912, Page 5

THE FISH PILOT.

PELORUS JACK (BY NIGHT). "A.E.5.," of Pahiatua, writes a* follows to the Auckland' "Graphic : "Here in sunny Nelson I suppose one takes Pelorus Jack just as one takes the apple or the hop crop, as quite 11 matter of course, But the wonder of it to the 'un-native," to the man who sees it once, and passes on to fresh wonders (or stops to think over past wonders). Ihe wonder of it! Standing in the bows of the Pateena at nine o'clock at night, we waited for Jack. It was somewhat like waiting for Pohutu at Whakarewarewa to perform, and whether, after all, 'it' should fail' to perform. Then the Spirit of the Foam came out of the depths. Already the sea had mocked the stars by putting forth puny phosphorescent flashes, but with the coming of the Spirit ttyese paled into nothingness." Here indeed was the very embodiment of phosphoresen'ce itself. And what, too, of tlip movements of the monster? Can you imagine a motor-boat of marvellous speed flashing right beneath the bows of a ship, frollicking, in fact, right at the danger point? Here is the living, breathing motor-car, say 14 feet long, smashing the foam into clouds of light, racing not the steamer, but the other foam made by the cleavage of the ship's waters. Perhaps the usual theory that Jack rubs himself on the steamer's side to clean himself is altogether wrong, for that night I saw no such mediocre reason for this display. I'saw instead that in reality 1 this monster sees each coming boat, m;iking a new white spirit as it parts the waters asunder, and like one lost soul seeking the companionship of another, he hopes to recognise at last the reincarnation of a past brother or sister monster —and to the response is but again a 'never-ending passing on !' I may be wrong, and at any rate am bin a landlubber, but- then I s'xw Jack at night when the foam of boat and the foam of living creature moved side by side, like two groat sister spirits."