The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-18
SOME NOBLE SPORT.
DEEP-SEA FISHING IN THE PA-
 CIFIC.
The PaIa, the Talsuo or Lnhe'u, and
 the Utu.

There is still a world of discover.
 open to the ichthyologist who, In ad
 dition to scientific knowledge, is lovel
 of deep-sea fishing, has some nerve, an(
 is content to undergo some occasiona
 rough experiences, if he elects to beglI
 his researches among the many island
 groups of the North and South Paclnc
 l possessed to some extent the two lat
 ter qualifications; the former much t(
 my present regret. 1 did not Nearly
 twenty-six years ago the vessel in Wh1cf
 l sailed as supercargo was Wfecked or
 Strong's Island, the eastern outline ol
 the fertile Caroline archipelago, and TOT
 more than twelve months l devoted the
 greater part of my time to traVerslne
 the mountainous island from end te
 end or, accompanied by hardy and
 intelligent native, in fishing, either In
 the peculiarly formed lagoon at the
 south end, or two miles or so outside
 the barrier reef.
 The master of the vessel, I may men,
 ton, was the notorious and much-ma-
 ligned Capt. Bully Hayes, and from
 him I had learned a little about some
 of the generally unknown deep-sea fish
 of Polynesia and Melanesia. He had
 told me that when once sailing between
 Aneityum and Tanna in te New Help
 rides shortly after a severe volcanic
 eruption on the former island had been
 he passed through many hundreds of
 dead and dying fish of great size. some
 of which were of a character utterly
 unknown to any of his native crew
 vt,Ia frpr, all n9rtC nf the North and South Pacific. More remark
 able still, some of these fish had never
 before been seen by the inhabitants of the island near which they were found
 There were, he said, some five or six kinds, but they were all of the grouper family. One of three which was brought
 on board was discovered floating on the surface when the ship was five miles off Tanna. A boat was lowered,
 but on getting up to it the crew found they were unable to lift it from the water; it was, however, lowed to the ship, hoisted on board, and cut into three parts, the whole of which were weighed, and reached over 300 pounds. In color it was a dull gray, With large, closely adhering scales; the fins, tail, and lips were blue. Another one, weigh ing less than 106 pounds, had differ entity shaped head, with curious pipe like mouth; this was uniform dull blue. A similar upturning from the oceans dark depths of strange fish oc- cured during a submarine earthquake near Rose Island, a barren spot to the southwest of the Navgator's Islands, Samoa) The disturbance threw vast numbers of fish upon the coral reefs of Manua, the nearest island of the group, and the natives looked upon their extraordinary size and peculiar appearance with unbounded astonish- ment.
 Without desiring to bore the reader with unnecessary details of my own ex- periences.in the South Seas, but because the statement bears on the subject of this article--a subject which has been my delight since I was boy of ten years of age-I may say that, nine years after the loss of Captain Hayes's ves- sel on Strong's, Island, I was again shipwrecked on Peru, one of the Gill bert, or, as we traders call them, the Line Islands Here I was so fortunate as to take up my residence with one of the local traders, a Swiss named Frank Voliero, who was an ardent deep sea fisherman, and whose catches were the envy and wonder of the wild and intractible natives among whom he lived; for he had excellent tackle, which enabled him to fish at depths seldom tried by the natives, who have no reason to go beyond sixty or eighty fathoms. In the long interval that had elapsed since my fishing days in the ' <Nz ,+ Tel and I had gained such experience in . my hobby in many other parts of the Pacific as falls to few men, and the . desire to fish in deep water, and get i something tha tastonished the natives of [ the various islands, had become a pas sion with me. Voliero mad myself went out together frequently, and did space permit, I should like to describe the fortune that attended us at Peru, as well as my fishing adventures at Strong's Island.
 I have before endeavored to describe that extraordinary, nocturnal-feeding fish, the palu, and the manner of it's capture by the Malayo-Polynesian isl- flanders of the equatorial Pacific, and in the present article shall try to con- vey to my readers and idea of deep sea fishing in the South Seas generally. When was living on the little island of Nanomaga, Gone of the Ellice group, situated about 600 miles to the north west of Samoa,) as the one resident trader I found myself inf I may use the term--a marine paradise, as far as fishing went. The natives were one and all expert fishermen, extremely jealous 1f their reputation of being not only the best and most skillful men in Poly nesia in the handling of the frail ca- noes in a heavy surf, but also deep earned in the lore of deep-sea fishing. My arrival at the island caused no lit lie commoton among the young b-oods ,ach of whose chances of gaining the ,irl of his heart and being united to her )y the local Samoan missionary teacher depended in great measure upon his lbility to provide sustenance for her rom the sea; for Nanomaga, like the est of the Elice group, is but little nore than richly verdured sandbank, based upon a foundation of coral, and fielding nothing to its people but cocoa- luts and a coarse species of taro called ,uraka The abitants, in their low ying atolls, possess no running streams, 10 fertile soil, in which, as in the moun- ainous isles of Polynesia, the bread c,,;+ tI,o van, and tha cwa-t notatp