and it rapidly swam down, drawing out the line as it went. It evidently failed to find its quarry, for after a few minutes it was pulled in by the tail and again thrown out, but this time on the other side of the boat. In this direction the quest was successful; the line became taut, and the fish had evidently joined its mate on the turtle's body. The second line was now transferred to the first fisherman, who held them both in one hand, while his companion busied himself in getting ready a roughlyfashioned, three-hooked grapnel attached to a rope. There was a short interval while the boat was paddled over the spot where the turtle was thought to be lying. Then the grapnel was looped on to the two "taza" lines by a cord attached to its shank, and it was lowered over the boat's side till it reached the bottom. An anxious moment followed. The man was evidently feeling his position, and waiting some indication that the grapnel was under the turtle. Suddenly he struck hard and hauled in a few feet of his rope. A broad grin broke over his face. There could be no question as to what had happened. turtle was fast. All was animation; the rope was quickly hauled in; the two boatmen dropped their paddles and dived headlong over the boat's side. Looking down into the clear water, I could plainly see their forms struggling with that of the turtle, which was being rapidly drawn to the The surface. In a second all had emerged; each boy held grimly on to the turtle's fin, and its back was firmly pressed against the boat's side. Considering its size, it made very little resistance; the face seemed to bear an expression of surprised indignation and alarm. In the twinkling of an eye it was hoisted over the boat's side and placed on its back in the bottom. The feat was accomplished,-I could be sceptical no longer. The turtle was a large one: measuring it later, I found it was 5 feet 8 inches from mouth to tail and 2 feet 9 inches across the base of its shell. I judged it to be old, for there were minute marine growths on the under part of the body. The grapnel had caught it near the joint of one of the hind fins. When it was lifted into the boat one of the "taza" was still clinging to the base of the shell, but the other had dropped off, no doubt disturbed by the action of the grapnel. One of the men unloosened the first "taza" without any apparent effort, and I was told their grip relaxed immediately they came out of the water. The morning passed with varying success. In all, we were fast to four other turtles. Two were safely captured and two broke away. Of the latter we lost one after a long and stern chase, the men explaining that the "taza" had become tired and dropped off. The other escaped while efforts were being made to get the grapnel into it. In this instance the turtle was fast by only one "taza," its companion, though sent to find it, evidently failing to do so or not caring to hold on. In all cases the procedure was the same. The men told me that the fish attached themselves to any part of the turtle's body; all positions seemed alike to them, though one fish varied from another in its capacity to serve its master. I can answer for it that both those in use that morning were no sluggards. They never shirked, and seemed as keen at the end as they were in the beginning. After the third successful capture an accident befel one of them. We were fast in something which I at first thought was another turtle, until I saw the fisherman getting ready a long harpoon instead of the grapnel. This time I learnt it was a fish which the "taza" was trying to bring us, but its zeal proved its undoing, for before long the grip loosened, and when it was drawn in it was evident that our friend had had the worst of the contest. The narrow green body was scarred in three places with the marks of its opponent's teeth, and after looking at the wounds the man pronounced them likely to prove fatal. Freed from its line it was put back into the sea, and I saw it slowly swim towards the bottom, its body turning over as it went. Such faithful service had verily earned a happier end. siderably larger than the other two which we caught, their measurements being 3 feet 10 inches and 4 feet in length and 2 feet 5 inches in both cases across the base of the shell. The turtles' favourite ground evidently covered only rather a small area, for the men had put out a wicker cage as a buoy to mark the spot when we first arrived, and I noticed they always paddled back to its neighbourhood before starting to fish again after our various chases had ended. The number of turtles to be seen was really remarkable; every now and again a small black head would emerge above the surface, survey the scene for a second or so, and then there would be nothing but a widening ripple. From the chart I see that we were fishing in about 6 to 10 fathoms of water. It was now midday, and as my boat had returned I got into it and started home. The sun was almost directly overhead, and its heat was like that of a scorching flame. There was no breath of wind from any quarter. A couple of Arab dhows in the distance lay becalmed, drifting with the current. The boat rose and fell on a surface of dazzling light. Look where one would, there was nothing for the eye to rest on; everywhere was glitter and glare, and the distant surf and the trees on the shore seemed to flicker and throb in the burning heat. Without a pilot, I thought it The first turtle was con- more prudent not to venture on the passage through the reef by which we had come out, and we found our way back to the landing - place by another route. In the evening my crew came to see me again. They said they had continued to fish until two o'clock, and had caught another turtle, but it was only a small one. That day had evidently been more fortunate than the previous ones, for then, using the same "taza," they had only been successful in one instance. The "taza," I was told, were caught on the coast at a place about seven miles away. They seemed to be scarce, and the fishermen had some difficulty in securing the supply they needed. The bait used is either a piece of fish or turtle. When they were caught the fish were placed in wicker cages submerged in the sea. "Taza" do not thrive in captivity, and refuse to eat, although every imaginable kind of food has been offered them by their captors. If they cannot be used in the two days following their capture they are thrown away, as it is recognised that they have not sufficient strength left to be of any use to their owners: exceptionally strong fish might perhaps be utilised on the third day. They do not attain any great size, I believe, even the largest being not more than the length of a man's arm. The larger the "taza" is, the better work may be expected of it, and the fishermen say they can tell at once from VOL. CXC. NO. MCLIII. its appearance what value, from their point of view, each fish will have. It is all a matter of degree; any "taza over 8 inches long will be serviceable, but their temperament differs. In some few cases, when the fish feels the strain of the line attached to the tail being tightened as the turtle to which it has fastened itself is being drawn in, it loosens its hold; in other cases, the action merely incites it to take a firmer grip. Calm weather or rough apparently makes no difference to the "taza," although the fishermen prefer the former, as it proves easier for them to manage their canoes. As long as the men know turtle exist in the piece of water they are working in, they put their fish out, and leave it to them to find exactly where the animals are. The highest catch my skipper acknowledged having made in one day was ten turtle. If the supply is scarce the fishermen will go out with only one taza," but they prefer using a couple. They like the fish to attach itself to the top of the turtle's shell, as in that case it is easier to get the grapnel into the base of the body without disturbing the "taza." The motive that guides the latter, they say, in attaching itself to any living object is to draw blood for its own nourishment. Turtle is preferred to fish, but before the turtle comes the dugong. If there is any choice in the matter, dugong is always the first object "taza" will seek. 2 x All species of fish, shark in- accomplished assistants, they cluded, seem alike to them. said, the task would be a good deal harder. The "taza's' natural disposition seems to be that of a bully and disturber of the maritime peace. They were compared to me by an old Arab, with whom I have since discussed my experiences, as playing that part in the sea which is taken on land by the African hunting - dog. They attack their neighbours wantonly and spend their days in warfare and strife. My informants told me that if the supply of turtle failed they caught fish with the "taza." The method was the same, except that a harpoon instead of a grapnel was used in the final act. They professed to have caught dugong to which a single "taza" had attached itself. When I expressed surprise at the comparatively small resistance which the turtles had made once the grapnel was in them, they explained that this was due to the skill of the two boys whose duty it was to hold the animals as they were being drawn into the boat: with less To the best of my knowledge I am the first white man to have seen turtles caught in this manner on this coast, and no description of it, as far as I am aware, has ever been published. SPORT IN FICTION. a BETWEEN the middle of August and the middle of February lies that happy time, the approach of which no veteran sportsman, unable any longer to share in its delights, can contemplate without sigh reduced to visit only in memory the scenes of his former joys. Then as he leans back in his chair, when half through his bottle of La Rose, rise up before him the sights and sounds familiar to him in past years. He roams once more the heather and the stubble behind his well-beloved setters, hears again the cheery cry of "cock" from the thick of the wood, or gallops once again over the well - remembered "ridge and furrow" traces of the vanished plough on the broad pasture - fields of the Midlands. After such a reverie is it not natural that he should turn to some of those works of fiction in which sport of one kind or another fills a prominent place, and the descriptions given are often sufficiently vivid to correspond to the scenes already eonjured up by memory? The influence of manners upon literature, and of literature upon manners, is always an interesting study. They act and react upon each other. And such no doubt has been the case with fashion and fiction in the matter of fieldsports. Fox-hunting was in full swing at the end of the eighteenth century, and in one of the latest of that class of comedies, an exquisite of the period tells his valet that "one must hunt in Leicestershire "that is the correct thing." But it has been before pointed out that it was the long French war which-by closing the Continent against the English aristocracy, and driving them back upon such diversions as their own country afforded-really brought hunting into fashion, and taught men to find at Melton some compensation for what they had lost in Paris. But it was some time before hunting became a sufficiently prominent feature in English life to compel the novelist to take notice of it. Of the early Victorian era Bulwer and G. P. R. James were, we suppose, the two most popular novelists-and neither of them mentions fieldsports except in the most casual manner, and for the purpose of this article we may dismiss them from consideration. The shooting scenes in 'Pickwick' need hardly be mentioned. They are pure farce; and if it signified anything it might be added that the author himself evidently knew little of the matter. Novels in which sport (the word being limited through this article to field - sports) forms a conspicuous feature are of three kinds. There is first the novel in which it is introduced as an illustration of manners or customs, or serves |