miles of them,
we were suddenly surrounded by a vast school of bonito, These fish,
so-named by the Spaniards from their handsome appearance, are a species
of mackerel, a branch of the SCOMBRIDAE family, and attain a size
of about two feet long and forty pounds weight, though their average
dimensions are somewhat less than half that. They feed entirely upon
flying-fish and the small leaping squid or cuttle-fish, but love to
follow a ship, playing around her, if her pace be not too great, for
days together. Their flesh resembles beef in appearance, and they are
warm-blooded; but, from their habitat being mid-ocean, nothing is known
with any certainty of their habits of breeding.

The orthodox method of catching them on board ship is to cover a
suitable hook with a piece of white rag a couple of inches long, and
attach it to a stout line. The fisherman then takes his seat upon the
jibboom end, having first, if he is prudent, secured a sack to the
jibstay in such a manner that its mouth gapes wide. Then he unrolls his
line, and as the ship forges ahead the line, blowing out, describes a
curve, at the end of which the bait, dipping to--the water occasionally,
roughly represents a flying-fish. Of course, the faster the ship is
going, the better the chance of deceiving the fish, since they have less
time to study the appearance of the bait. It is really an exaggerated
and clumsy form of fly-fishing, and, as with that elegant pastime, much
is due to the skill of the fisherman.

As the bait leaps from crest to crest of the wavelets thrust aside by
the advancing ship, a fish more adventurous or hungrier than the rest
will leap at it, and in an instant there is a dead, dangling weight of
from ten to forty pounds hanging at the end of your line thirty feet
below. You haul frantically, for he may be poorly hooked, and you cannot
play him. In a minute or two, if all goes well, he is plunged in the
sack, and safe. But woe unto you if you have allowed the jeers of your
shipmates to dissuade you from taking a sack out with you.

The struggles of these fish are marvellous, and a man runs great risk of
being shaken off the boom, unless his legs are firmly locked in between
the guys. Such is the tremendous vibration that a twenty-pound bonito
makes in a man's grip, that it can be felt in the cabin at the other and
of the ship; and I have often come in triumphantly with one, having lost
all feeling in my arms and a goodly portion of skin