LEVIATHAN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20292, 28 December 1927, Page 14

LEVIATHAN.

IN A NET. THE BEST FISH STORY. Since primitive man discovered the virtues of the barb anglers have been a particularly fortunate class. The fisn which they catch provide them at worst with meals, at best with agreeable short stories. The fish which they fail to catch, from the 41b roach to the 40010 tarpon, furnish them with sublime hopes and enthralling narratives (states a writer in The Times). Unlike most of us, they can have it both ways. Whoever lands the giant pike of Walton's weir makes angling history; whoever hooks but loses it has the material for a prose epic, whicn grows more thrilling with each repetition. The pike also grows. But the narratives of fishermen who use the net are sadly handicapped by the very nature of their implements, and bv the utilitarianism of their calling. Once inside the net most fish unwisely stay there till they are hauled ashore. To the profane spectator their capture seems to require muscle and shouting rather than finesse; the abundance of witnesses fetters the inventive genius of the fishermen, and even in these socialistic days their noisy, collec live activities appeal to us less than the mysterious exploits of tho aloof individualist with the rod. Anglers, give us pleasing but unsubstantial entertainment. To net fishermen we primarily owe all sorts of excellent dishes and yet, ungrateful ever, we prefer the stones of their rivals. But there are rare occasions upon which the spirit of romance winks encouragingly at the men of the net. A recent morning was one of these. Our Karachi correspondent describes the wondrous adventure of a local fishing fleet. Early in the morning a flotilla with 50 otout fishermen on board entered the harbour in triumph towing a protesting whale. They had accomplished a feat of endurance almost comparable to a six days’ speech. For four long days and three nights they had been battling with the leviathan in sight of unthinking Karachi. He had towed then 10 miles. They had had hairbreadth escapes from his charges. Only on the fourth night did their pride permit them to summon reinforcements, and even so it took 90 of them a whole day to beach their captive. rfinbad himseit, who knew, or nrofessed to know, these monster-haunted seas, might well have been jealous, for he never brought back so much as a feather of the Roc, whereas these men of Karachi exhibited their whale alive and kicking vhile they recounted their adventures, and no doubt made a collection. To add to the general excitement their victim, either in explanation of his failure to escape Horn a mere net or as a protest against their version of his capture, suddenly disgorged bath mats and biscuit tins as though he were a vulgar shark, incidentally oroviding this story with a moral that those who swallow anything come to deplorable ends.