with fright. (Lloyd.) Fish-hooks, baited with meat, are good to catch these sort of birds.

§ 5. Bolas and lasso.-"The bolas consist of three balls, composed either of lead or stone, two of them heavy, and the third rather lighter. They are fastened to long elastic strings, made of twisted sinews, and the opposite ends of the strings are all tied together. The Indian holds the lightest of the three balls in his hand, and swings the two others in a wide circle above his head; then taking his aim, at the distance of about 15 or 20 paces, he lets go the hand-ball, upon which all the three balls whirl in a circle, and twine round the object aimed at. The aim is usually taken at the hind legs of the animals, and the cords twisting round them, they become firmly bound. It requires great skill and long practice to throw the bolas dextrously, especially when on horseback. A novice in the art incurs the risk of dangerously hurting either himself or his horse by not giving the balls the proper swing, or by letting go the hand-ball too soon." (Tscudi's "Peru.")

It is impossible to learn the use of the lasso without months of practice and instruction.

Hawking is a disappointing pursuit, from the frequent loss of hawks; and can hardly be carried on except in a hawking country, where the sportsman has a better chance both of recovering and replacing them, and is quite impracticable except where the land is open and bare; it is quite a science. The birds are rarely affectionate or intelligent.

FISHING.

§ 1. Fishing-tackle.

§ 2. Spearing Fish-Intoxicating them.
§ 3. Otters and Cormorants.

§ 1. Fishing-tackle.—A traveller should take very small, and also middling-sized, hooks; he might have a dozen of each sort whipped on to gut; and at least a couple of casting lines; also several dozens of tinned iron fish-hooks of various sizes, such as are used at sea, with plenty of line.

Fish-hooks are made of iron, not steel, wire. While the piece is straight, it is laid along a little groove in a block of wood, and there barbed by the stroke of a chisel slantwise across it. The other end is flattened by a tap of the hammer, or roughened, that it may be held by the whipping; then the point is sharpened by a file, and on a stone. proper curvature is next given, and lastly the hook is casehardened (see Case-hardening); proper temper is given by heating the hook red hot, and quenching it in grease.

The

Gut is made from silk-worms, but the scrapings of the membrane in the manufacture of catgut make a fine, strong, and somewhat transparent thread, and twisted horsehair can always be had. Boiling this in soap-lees takes away its oiliness.

Reel. If you have no reel, make a couple of gimlet holes, 6 inches apart, in the butt of your rod, at the place where the reel is usually clamped; drive wooden pegs into these, and wind your spare line round them. The pegs should

not be quite square with the butt, but should slope a little, each away from the other, that the line may be better retained on them.

Trimmers are well known, and are a convenient way of fishing the middle of a pool with only a short line. Anything will do for the float-a bladder is very good.

Otters. What is called "an otter" may supply the traveller with food. A board of light wood, 14 inches long and 8 inches high, or thereabout, is heavily weighted along its lower edge, so as to float upright in the water; a string, like the bellyband of a kite, and for the same purpose, is fastened to it, and to this belly-band the end of a line, furnished with a dozen hooks, at intervals, is tied. As the fisherman walks along the bank, the otter runs away from him, and carries his line and hooks far out into the stream. It is very convenient to have a large hand-reel to wind and unwind the line upon, but a forked stick will do very well.

In fishing with a long ground-line and many hooks, it is of importance to avoid entanglements; make a box in which to coil the line, and a great many deep saw-cuts across the sides, into which the thin short lines that the hooks are whipped to, are jammed.

To recover a lost line, make a drag of a small bushy tree with plenty of branches, that are so lopped off as to leave spikes on the trunk. This is weighted with a stone and dragged along the bottom.

To see things deep under water, use a long box or tube with a piece of glass at the lower end; this removes entirely the glare of the water and the effects of a rippled surface.

Nets.

-A seine net may be furnished with bladder for floats, or else with pieces of light wood charred to make

them more buoyant. The hauling ropes may be made of bark steeped for three weeks, till the inner bark separates from the outer, when the latter is twisted into a rope. (Lloyd.) Where the small fish are swimming near the surface in shoals, there the water is sure to be rippled.

§ 2. Spearing fish.—Intoxicating them.—The “grains” are made much like Neptune's trident, and the length of the handle gives steadiness to the blow. In spearing by torchlight, a broad oval piece of bark is coated with wet mud, and in it a blazing fire is lighted. It is fixed on a stage, or held in the bow of the boat, so high as to be above the spearman's eyes. He can see everything by its light, especially if the water be not above 4 feet deep, and the bottom sandy. But there are not many kinds of wood that will burn with a bright enough fire; the dry bark of some resinous tree is often used. If tarred rope can be obtained, it may simply be wound round a pole fixed in the bow of the boat, and lighted.

Intoxicating fish.-The properties of cocculus Indicus are well known. Throughout tropical Africa the natives catch fish by poisoning them. Dams are made, which, when the river is very low, enclose deep pools of water with no current; into these the poison is thrown; it intoxicates the fish, who float and are taken.

§ 3. Otters and cormorants are both used to catch fish; and dogs are trained by the Patagonians to drive fish into the nets, and to frighten them from breaking loose when the net is being hauled in. Cormorants in China fish from October to May, the winter months, working from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M.; then they are given their dinner. When they fish, a straw tie is put round their neck to keep them from swallowing the fish, and yet so as not to slip down and choke them.

A boat takes out ten or twelve of these birds; they obey the voice; if disobedient, the water near them is struck with the back of the oar; as soon as one has caught a fish, he is called to the boat, and the oar is held out for him to step upon.