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SOUTH SEA ISLAND FISHING EXPERTS Some Queer and Skillful Ways of Catching Fish by Pacific Ocean Sportsmen The South Sea islanders are as adept at fishing as they are at canoeing They go out in frail canoes outside the reefs where sharks usually lie and catch these ugly monsters from three to fiftc n feet long lia lancing with a marvelous ability o white man could ever hope to emulate the natlv s will play huge captives on their crude hooks at d eventually draw them alongside and kill thei i Sometimes the boats are capsized As th shark charges the man in the water the man dives under it and rips open its stomach Infortnnately for the islander the sharks are very cunning and gen rally a dozen of them attack a man at once when of course he has not a chance for his life and is quickly torn to pieces The shark teeth are used by the natives to put a cutting edge on their spears spearsThe The islanders troll with pearl shell hooks to lure the albicorc bonito sea pike and coryphoena The last named is the most remarkable of fish changing all colors of the rainbow when dying It has long been misnamed by sailors the dolphin dolphinMiny Miny of the instruments used in making nets are almost identical with tlm v used by the crofter in thi north of Scotland Tl is we find that people separated by the width of the world of different race color and intelligence make articles almost the same sameMany Many and ingenious are the fish traps used in the South Seas Square traps are used by the natives of AYashington Island and the Gilberts They are made from bamboo held together by coir string Some are used to catch the castor oil fish one very difficult to take as its habitat is a hundred fathoms down The traps are similar in design The circular entrance runs about three quarters of the length of the trap and narrows gradually Reyond its end bait is placed The fish swims in and passes out of tin circular tube inlo the larger confines of the trap trapTraps Traps are used by the Solomon islanders for taking small fish The crab trap consists of a small net inside which is placed a medium sized clam shell rather a small one for in this part of fhe world clams attain to the weight of a ton The shell inside the net is lowered to the bottom of the lagoon opening automatically as it strikes the bottom AVhen a crab enters the net the mouth of which is kept open by the extended shell the watching fisherman pulls on the string thereby closing the shell with the crab inside it Fish are also speafcd by many of the islanders islandersFloats Floats are also used by the Solomon islanders Attached to the bottom of these floats are baited hooks A fisherman puts a lot of these out at once lie knows a fish is taken when the float becomes violently agitated It is made large ami buoyant enough to hold a fairly large fish Thus by spear net trap and float do the South Sea islanders get one of their chief sources of food from waters abundantly stocked with a great va ¬ riety of edible fish
