The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-02-07

slender sticks in such a way that they
can be drawn together whenever de-
sired, thus closing the net When the
sticks are crossed, they hold the net
open in the shape of a shallow bag.
Having prepared the net, one of the
fishermen sets to work to catch uhu
with hook and line. AS soon as he gets
one, he hauls it in very carefully so as
not to injure it, and takes the hook out
of it's mouth as gently as possible.
Then he passes a thin but strong line
into its mouth and through its gills.
Thus harnessed the uhu is lowered into
the water over the uhu haunts.
The other fishermen, meanwhile, have
lowered the net till it lies on the bottom
a short distance away
The harnessed uhu makes frantic eff
forts to escape, and the other uhus,
which are extremely inquisitive fish,
lose their shyness, because they nat
urally do not suspect anything wrong
when they see a living uhu apparently
playing around. They rush forth to
see what he has that is making him so
busy.
AS soon as the uhus begin to pop
out of their holes, the fisherman VINO
is manipulating the line with the de-
coy uhu moves it very slowly and
steadily toward the net. The uhus
follow, and as soon as a dozen or more
are gathered around the decoy uhu
the uhus from every place near there
rush out to see what the trouble is.
So, inch by inch, the whole school is
decoyed, very gradually, until it is
over the open net. Then, with sharp
jerk, the net closes instantly, and all
the uhus are inclosed in a big bag of
Irvine from which there is no escape.
There are other rock-dwelling fish
that are not to be tempted even with
live decoy. They are so shy and cum
ming that they will not venture out of
their holes and crevices for more than
just an instant, to seize some partic-
ularly tempting bit of food; and the
food will not be touched if it looks at
all suspicious. This makes hook and
line fishing quite useless, and as the
fish cannot be decoyed into a net, and
no net can reach them where they
hide. the fishermen have devised a
way of chasing them out and actual
ly gathering them up like potatoes.
They have a veritable fly brush to
chase them-a brush almost the coun-
terpart of the brushes that folk in the
United States use to "shoo" flies out
of the house. This fly brush is about
three feet long.
The fisherman holds it in one hand,
while in the other he holds a net
formed just like a common bag, with
the mouth held open by twigs.
AS the canoe glides smoothly over
the sea, he leans over the bow, chew
ing a peculiar waxy fruit called the
candlenut. At intervals, he splits the
oily juice into the water. At once a
film forms, smoothing away ever rip
pie, so that the water is absolutely
glasslike, and it is possible to look
down. down even to depths of twenty
five nd IfYfx ND he
holes with the fish in them.
AS soon as the fisherman locates a
good group of holes, over he goes, ST.
lently, and so skilfully that there is
hardly a splash as he dives. He guides
himself straight downward, using only
his feet for progress, until he arrives
on the bottom.
Then he begins to WELD the brush
as fast as he can WELD it, poking it
into holes and soaring the fish out, ex-
actly as a woman in the United States
does with the flies.
AS the fish come scurrying out, he
holds his net in such way that the
frightened fish are forced to swim
straight into it's open mouth.
A fisherman can remain below the
surface for from one and one-half to
two minutes. In this time he may
secure a whole bagful of fish. and
again he may not get any. But he does
not rest until he has a mess. He comes
to the surface just long enough to
breathe, and then descends again at
once.
In some of the lagoons, the natives
do what they call trembling leaves"
fishing. The canoes go out full of
women and children who are supplied
with leafy branches. These are waved
over the surface of the water in such
a way that the shadows of the leaves
brighten the fish. Gradually. as the
fish scurry ahead, the boats close in
until the fish are well crowded to-
gether near the mouth of a great net.
which has been spread to receive them.
Then the fishermen push in, splashing
and beating the water with paddles,
ETC., and thus drive the schools of
fish into the net, when it is closed and
hauled ashore.
y queer bait is used to attract fish
into some of the nets. 1t is composed
of cooked squash or pumpkins, fish
dried and ground up with sand, and
cooked bread fruit and bananas, all
mashed up fine and dropped into the
net.
At other times. the fisherman will
chew cassava root and bananas and
spit it out over the water where he is
using his net, to attract fish.
Altogether, probably there is no place
in the world where so many varied
and queer methods of fishing are used
as in the Hawaiian Islands. The slip
Moose is used for some fish. Others
are stupefied by poisonous plants
smashed and dropped into the water.
Others are caught by hand. Still 9TH
ers are taken with hooks made of
piece of mother of pearl. Wooden
hooks, shaped like fish. are used for
some varieties, while others are caught
with the best modern steel hooks, made
in America and England. Certain fish