BOOKS OF THE DAY:

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2001, 7 March 1914, Page 9

BOOKS OF THE DAY:

"THE,GAME FISHES OF THE WORLD." I.'wonder''what "Good Master Piscator,". and'his friend "Master Venator," would have thought,'could they, on one of those, peaceful evenings spent in a quaint old inn, and desoribed so delightfully in Isaak Walton's-."Compleat Angler," .have but had before them, besides, their: cheerful ale' pots, a copy of Mr.. C. ■;' P. Holder's wonderful book, "The Game Pishes of the World" (Hodder and Stoughton; per Whitcombe and Tombs and S. and W. Mackay). How meagre 'their, boasted exploits on jlie peaceful ■-,;,-rEnglish'. streams, ,in. they' 1 fished, would ' have seomed by tho side of tho marvels which Mr. Holder recounts, often quite as mere commonplace, everyday' happenings, and Piscator, who, as w6.kno\y, must have been a great reader, mighty 1 fear, have held Mr. Holder's narrative to r be, in parts at least, one more mere traveller's idle tale. But the. great fraternity of fishermen today; are often mighty travellers, as well> wo:know 'iii' Now Zealand, and the joys' of tarpon fishing in Florida, or tuna fishing .olf the Californiah coast, have becoine world-famous.. Mr. Holder has produced a. volume wdiich fishermen ono and, alf must either proudly possess or ■nnfeignedly covet. Even to a mere "fender :.nsherm'an,"' as the late Eugene Field put.it, like .myself, ;this' handsome tomp ;. proves ■■; vastly ■ entertaining. : . The author, who -is famous as' the founder of tho'.Tuna; Club, on .Santa- Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California, is a latterly Master Piscator, only a'-.skilled and enthusiastic 'fisherman,, but:possesses distinct literary gifts. . His travels in pursuit of his favourite sport havo taken him to. most parts of tho United States where fishing is to be enjoyed, to Canada, to England, Scotland, and Ireland, and various' parts of, the Continent. His o\rn personal experiences ho supple-ments.-by those .'of other great fishing authorities who deal, with fishing' in many distant' and out-of-the-way foreign waters.- -'•'«'- ~

The Tuna Club. Oiie of .the most interesting ■ chapters in- Mr. Holder's book .is that in which tho'author gives an. account'of the famous Tuna Club, ai Avalon Bay The leiping tuna, which attains a weight of: thirteen hundred - pounds, and travels the>seas of'the I ..world,,;is in a class by. itself,' but the lesser' tunas, which usually range up ;to .two* hundred pounds, are the attraction'.atVSahta.Catalina.lsjifrid., The Tuna ■ Club 'has ; a 'record/ of a two huridfed'and : fiftyrbiie'.poun'd.:fish, •caught with ! a -tweirty-bnef,thread lino* Of- late ■ the, newly '.discovered game-'hsh, ;the;:Catalina sword-fish,'' ; 'is :'all v the fashion, '%&, -'says' Mr. Holder, ; 'to' :the stranger/Within >th'e'. Califoruian .'• gates, Jtjie'tuna.is-still^the-piecp dp-resistance, '■&d';,'aU /its '.uncertainty. ■ MovTiiffa 1 iOlußVdonsists of members' wno jffiust JiaVe; ; Meii a 1001b.' tim'a'with 'a / lMZ ; .;i : od';ond a lino not 'oyer. No. 24. exasperates 'the se'a- ' angler fjh^'re'fusing' ..to; bite", 1 " and some il^iincjus' mechanical'devices have' n : invented W-.aid hii&apture. These are, illustrated in'tho book. The fas..cin'atipu of.tho sport is enhanced,'by . its'.uncertai'iit}'. Says Mr.-Holder :—<.;

Tho'cleverest, aiigler really, knows "'. nothing about/the.tuna..-. He knows '>, it is duo in- June, and that ".; disappear- some time in August, .' or it may stay till Oclober in somo ,{ years*-'-It will-.carrjv off-everything' towing;boats j'-'pliy- ■') 'ing. liieii almost, toj.-their; deaths' -in

''• .i^uts:frpm ; ,sixte'en;.fo' twenty hours; ' setting'men'wit-ir'ied blood* in'their .'■Veins' "wild-f-to suddenly-disappear , . .for'-a--.year j becoming coy for sev- ; 'eral .years, .to-coino in some day ■!■■ unheralded but of the unknown,- to \. play havoc.-:■ with patient anglers. ■•:, It is tliis' uncertainty, ,this infpos- \ siblcness, that fascinates anglers, ■; and always' will, which bring them ■;', year after ;ycar from England and .■: France, and almost every European .% country.

::. The 2501b. catch-with a 24-thread line, :which is demanded for club records, was ■a,' Wonderful feat, but in 1910, Mr. J. K. ,L. Ross,, of Montreal, actually succeeded 'in".landing ' a : , monster tuna which weighed nearly 8001b. ■ Tho lino i'used, a No. 39 thread, was, under tile circumstances, • a wonderfully slender thing for such a giant'fish.

":A Swordfish Story. ; Swordfish are; as I have said above, the fashion- just now at Santa Catalina. One .of Mr. -Holder's stories "about this spelndid game fish concerns Dr. Gilford Pinehot, formerly the head of-'the United. States forestry Department, and a personal^friend of Mr. Roosevelt, v, On'one occasion, Dr. Pin-ehot-was fishing from a 2001b. skiff, in • which.was Mexican-Joe, his boatman. He'had been out all day; and about 5 o'clock in'tho evening . sent a message to Mr. Holder' to c'omo out at oncein a launch, and witness the play of .v second, swordfish, which the visi•t6r:had hooked.- OfE went the local enthusiast,'his search for the skiff coming to an end about four miles out, when a faint gleam' discovered the whereabouts of the fishermen.' J- Mexican Joe, it appeared, lighted his last match in the -, hope that, it ..might serve as a. signal. "Says Mr. Holder:—■

\. Pinchot was' sitting facing : the' ' stern', plaving the big fish, that was towing them at'a rate bt'four or five miles an'hour. I had a most uncomfortable tiriie trying to keep. . within reach,'. yet not, too near, and. when I rounded tip and was caught in.the trough of the sea I thought • I would bo nearlythrown.-,.' out of the launch. Tho: darkness was now in..teri'se,, but.the phosphorescence so vivid .that they appeared to bo in a • sea of -tiro, l'inchot brought that ' fish'' to. gaff fourteen times, and fourteen times it broke away, and he had all the work to do over again. ;■ At last) r.ftcr several hours, .he/ shouted that Joe had - ;' gaffed the fish, and I could see their ' figures in a weird blaze of phos- . phorcscent light. In attempting to' .get alongside, as I feared they would capsize in the small craft, 1 nn into; th n iri on the .crest of a big sea, and the intense darkness tending to confusion, the impact nearly knocked Joe overboard, and lie lost his-, hold on the swordfish, and cried, "He's off!" "No, he's jiot!" shouted tho chief forester. ' "I have him by the tail." And •■■ as I backed off .1 saw the extraor- '. dinary sight of the angler holding tho mndd(!ncd ten-foot fish by tho ..' tail, while it swung up and down, churning tho sea into life, it was ". a remarkably plucky thing to do ■; under any circumstances, and I .'thought, as I clung with one hand to the wheel, the other on tho clutch of tho engine, trying to hold myself in,, that if I ever got into a tight place I should like to have'Gilford Pinchot with me, as I'would know ■ ho-was there to stay, .no matter what cirne. I made another at- . tempt to got alongside,V this time '. successfully. • -Joe h.",d again gaffed

the swordfish, and I took their lino whilo they lashcd,.tho game to the seat; then they came aboard the launch, which .was turned and headed for cav.p, about six or seven miles in, where Governor Pardee, of California, had lighted a big bonfire as a beacon."

The Charm of British Angling. Mr. Holder is justly proud of the fine sport which is at the disposal of the American angler in his own land, and-gossips learnedly and pleasantly over tho black and white sea-bass, the yellowtail of California, the salt-water jacks of tho Bermudas and Cuba, the splendid sport to bo had with tho Florida tarpoii, and the Pacific Coast sal<mon.- He discourses; too, upon his experiences in Norway; -on the Riviera, and on other parts of the Mediterranean, coasts, but he cheerfully admits that there is a special and distinctive charm about angling in Great Britain, a charm Which arises from what is so often a beautiful -scenic environment and human associations of ?.n historical iharacter. t What chance (ho says), for ex- '., -ample, an angler, especially an American, casting for salmon on tho Tweed, when a friend whispers, 'If you will cast your fly just over there, it will drop not far from tho spot wher'o Scott wrote "Ivanhpe." ' Or, when casting for salmon on the Hodder, or was it the Kibble? Father Irwin, of- Stonyhurst, said, '.You see the old bridgo abovo us (the charming one I had been devouring with envious,eye)? . Cromwell's army crossed that in the seventeenth century.': And when my friend Annan took me down the Tweed to another bridge under which salmon were lurking that I might view its ancient.beauty, a bridge that Scott used, I forgot all about' the salmon, ,the Jock Scott, and other flies the gillies had made for me' at the Edinburgh Salmon Club." "How," he asks, "can a mere mortal concentrate his mind ' on angling on such rivers as the Tweed, Wye, Urc, Denvent, Esk, and others, -where Nature has outdone herself in producing the most radiantly beautiful. vistas of green, of forest, and sweeps of upland and lowland-that blend and melt into' the blue.of the heavens in splendid pictures no matter which way one turns or looks."

An Anglers' Cyclopaedia. Tho schemo of the book takes in a description'of practically all the leading game fishes of tho world/and thero are few countries where angling—for game fish—can bo had which do not receive attention in Mr. handsome volume. It is to bo regretted, however, that the Australasian : chapter, which consists of six pages only, does not contain-more detailed information, for this is a book which is. sure to find a placo in every angling, club's.library in America and/England, and more detailed iinformation as to the splendid sport to be had in the Dominion-might have had an excellent result in' bringing" an eysr-, increasing number of British and American anglers to our-shqres. lu.therci.erenco to New''Zealand, 3 ''wliichP is" -spdcf-1 ally and disappointingly meagre, 1. notice, no mention of. that superb fighter, the kingtish. It would not bo a bad idea, .I.think," were our Tourist Department to supply Mr. ■ Holder and his friends of the Tuna Club with particulars of. recent kingfish catches made :\uj> north, refronces to which have been so frequent of late -in the Press. Mr. Holder mentions the Florida kingfish and the. kingfish of Natal, but of the New Zealand variety. he is apparently ignorant. The author has been assist*.<l in. the compilation of his work by angling enthusiasts.in various parts of the world. -The illustrations,.of which these are a largo number, are well chosen mid beautifully produced, and an excellent idea is an extensivo aud useful bibliography. The price of tho book is a guinea.

THE NATI9WS LIBRARY. Two recent additions to Collins's "Nation's Library," the special features of which are described as "specialised information' by the most competent authorities," and an. absence of any trace of the obsolete, reach mo from the publishers. The two new titles are "Canada as an Imperial Factor," by Haniar Greenwood, /Mil*, -for York,' and formerly a 'member of tho Canadian House of Commons, and "The Land Problem," an Imperial survey by "Home Counties" (Mr. J. W. Robertson Scott).. Mr. Greenwood gives us an admirably succinct survey of the political history, the natural resources, industries, .! watorways, and railways of tho Dominion, and is specially interesting in his chapters on the administration of. Government and the Dominion's relations with r.ho . Mother Country. Mr. Robertson Scott's book must, of course, be of primary interest to dwellers in the Old Country, but not a 'little of the information lie gives is pertinent' to the study of the land question as we know it in New Zealand. '• Tho first of his conclusions is that'"most of the talking and writing on the land problem is "being done by politicians and journalists, rather than by tho experts—farmers and labourers." For what Mr. Scott -considers to be the' most hopeful remedies for the present most unsatisfactory position of British farming, and of the. farm-labourers, my readers must turn tii the pages of an exceptionally lucid and practical little treatise. Each volume has a lull index, and is furnished with a hnlpf.nl bibliography of the subject dealt with. (New Zealand price, Is. 3d.)