naturally receive little for them unless the business could be carried on as a going concern. If it be asked what motive the Japanese land-holder would have in driving away a good tenant, it need only be pointed out that by the means suggested he would be able to force a sale and then buy up the plant and buildings, thus coming into possession of a lucrative business for the price of an old song. Of course I do not suggest that every Japanese land-holder would behave in this fashion, but the standard of commercial morality is very low in Japan, and the risk would be so great as to form an effectual deterrent to enterprise.

Thus the right to manufacture and trade in all parts of the Japanese Empire, which has been put forward as a substantial equivalent for the surrender of extra-territoriality, is likely under present conditions to prove a delusion and a snare to any foreign merchant or manufacturer who attempts to take advantage of it. If our diplomatists found it impossible to secure for foreigners the right to hold land in Japan-and I admit that, from reasons which are too lengthy to be detailed here, there were many obstacles in the way-they certainly ought to have secured a definite undertaking from the Japanese Government that leases for terms of fifty years should be recognised by the prefectural authorities. It may not be too late to obtain this small concession now, and the effort should at least be made by the Foreign Office. Otherwise, as matters now stand, British subjects resident in Japan will be deprived of the advantages conferred by extra-territoriality and obtain nothing in return, for the article which permits mixed residence in the interior, with freedom of travel, trade and manufacture in any part of the Japanese dominions, comprises the whole of what they receive for surrendering the very real benefits of British law administered by British officials.

It would be absurd to blame the Japanese for obtaining as much as possible when the Treaty was in negotiation; it may even be that both the Japanese and the British plenipotentiaries were ignorant of the practice instituted by the prefectural authorities of refusing to recognise fifty-year leases between Japanese and foreigners, though the negotiators on the foreign side can hardly be held free from blame in failing to provide themselves with definite information on these matters. But, granting a real desire on the part of Japan to give foreigners a fair return for the privileges surrendered-and to suggest anything else would be to doubt the bona fides of Japanese assurances throughout the negotiations-there is yet time to repair the omissions and defects in both the important matters to which attention has been directed. A protocol could be drawn up providing safeguards on the lines suggested above in the matter of the imprisonment of foreigners; and at the same time the assent of the Japanese Government could be secured to the insertion of a

definite term-say fifty years-for which leases between Japanese and foreigners would be recognised. If these amendments could be effected, the bulk of the opposition of British subjects to the new Treaties would, I believe, disappear, and the British Government would not only render a real service to its subjects in Japan, but would at the same time avoid many serious complications to which the Treaties as they now stand will be certain to give rise when they come into operation. If the Japanese, as I hold, are in justice and fairness entitled to such a revision of Treaties as has now been secured, foreign residents in Japan are at least entitled on their part to the fullest protection their respective Governments can give them.

ROBERT YOUNG, Editor, Kobe Chronicle, Japan.

PASS FISHING FOR TARPON

It was my good fortune one afternoon last March to find myself in company with my friend T. on board a Cunarder bound for America, and, to be exact, that part of America in which the tarpon has his home.

To most Englishmen this fish is little known, but we were fortunate in being primed with information by two friends who had been out the previous year, and who had enjoyed good sport. As this is a tarpon article and not an account of our voyage across the Atlantic, it will be sufficient to say that after spending twenty-four hours in the throes of sea-sickness, we recovered sufficiently to develop gigantic appetites and to rather enjoy a severe storm which we encountered in mid-Atlantic. Few people, I imagine, who have ever visited the States can have spent less time in New York than T., for we landed at 8 P.M. and by 9 o'clock he was in the train on his way to Florida, whilst I remained in New York to buy the necessary tackle. Our reels were all that we had brought from England, they having been lent to us, thus saving our pockets considerably, as a tarpon reel of the latest pattern costs no less than 30 dollars. For pass fishing the tackle is simple: a strong stiff rod of about seven to seven and a half feet long, a multiplying reel containing 200 yards of moderately fine but strong twisted line, some five feet of piano wire, a swivel or two, and a large single hook. Breakages, however, occur frequently, and it is necessary to have spare rods, lines, and hooks. A strong good-sized gaff with a barbed point, and last but not least a belt to go round the waist with a socket in which to rest the butt of the rod when playing a fish. Personally I omitted buying one, and was forced to rig up a primitive affair with a rug strap and a revolver pouch, which answered well. Such a belt adds much to one's comfort, for the butt end of the rod is small, and one experiences unpleasant sensations in the region of the waist when playing a heavy fish with

out one.

After some forty weary hours in the train and a few hours in a steamboat added to that, I rejoined T. and found that he had made good use of his time, having hired a yacht and provisioned her, engaged guides and boats for each of us, and a man to cook our food.

VOL. XLII-No. 246

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In fact all was ready for us to start off fishing at once, and we were impatient to do so. This yacht, which for the following three weeks we made our home, was a roomy schooner of about eleven tons, with a comfortable deck house in which five of us slept, whilst the cook lived in the galley together with many cockroaches. Strange to say, we had neither an American nor a nigger on board. My guide, by name Bill Bartley, was a native of Liverpool; he had left England in 1862, and after sailing in many ships and in many waters he had married and settled down in Florida. Charlie Johnson, who acted as T.'s guide, and our cook were both Swedes, the former as good and keen fisherman as the latter was execrable cook. Of course we were both anxious to get to work at the tarpon immediately, but the weather was against it. With a bright sun there was a strong chilly wind, and for the first two days we were forced to put up with what is locally known as small fishing. Fish of all sorts abound amongst the islands on the west coast of Florida, and we had good sport and much variety. A species of trout, bass, jack-fish, lady-fish, sheepshead, Spanish mackerel and snapper were among those we caught, and of these the trout, mackerel, and especially the snapper, were excellent eating. All of these fish rose greedily to a medium-sized salmon fly, and a home-made creation of T.'s, composed principally of the blue feathers from a jay's wing, proved specially attractive. It was pleasant fishing, gliding silently in and out among the small islands-some of which consist merely of a clump of mangroves growing out of the water-and casting under the boughs, reminding one of happy hours fly-fishing for chub on the Thames. Trolling a fly, on a single hook baited with a strip cut from the side of a ladyfish, was equally productive of sport, and indeed, given a warm day without too much wind, fish could be caught until the angler was tired of catching them.

move.

On the third day from the start the wind had abated and the water was warmed by the sun, so we weighed anchor, and a few hours' sail brought us to the spot from which for three weeks we did not The fishing ground was a pass about half a mile long and the same distance across, between two long islands. Outside the pass was the open Gulf of Mexico, and inside was comparatively shallow water right up to the shore of the mainland. The tides behaved most erratically; occasionally there was a flood tide for a whole day, when it would start running out again for six hours, and then run in again for another twelve hours, or vice versa, and this at a rate of six or seven knots an hour. It was when the tide was flowing or ebbing its fastest that sport was obtained, and of the two, the ebb tide was the best, for there seemed then to be more tarpon collected in the pass. The natural history of the tarpon is not yet well understood, but it may be well to mention here what little is known about it. Megalops thrissoides, the tarpon, is the largest and most important

variety of the Clupea, or herring tribe, and is found in greatest numbers in the Gulf of Mexico. As to the size of the fish, there are several instances of specimens being caught weighing upwards of 200 lb., while in length they run up to seven feet. Shaped like a huge herring, they are most remarkable for their metallic brilliancy when alive and for the size of their scales. Before me, as I write, lies a scale the dimensions of which are: width in its broadest part 4 inches, depth 3 inches, tipped with silver of such dazzling brightness to the extent of an inch or so down the scale, that it looks positively artificial. The food of the tarpon is the grey mullet and the smaller fry of other fish, and although belonging to the salt water, a tarpon will go many miles up rivers in pursuit of these schools of fish. The one blot on the sport of fishing for these silver kings,' as they are sometimes called, lies in the fact that their flesh is worthless as food, being soft and soapy, and when the excitement of landing the fish is over, it is always unsatisfactory to remember that this magnificent fish must be thrown into the sea as rubbish, and end ignobly as food for the sharks.

The tarpon are supposed to come in from the outside sea with the flood tide, and disperse to feed over the shallow water among the islands towards the mainland, returning to the pass with the ebb tide. Practically, however, there is always a chance of a fish, and the fisherman who perseveres and works the hardest is certain to have most success.

When the tide is slack the boat is rowed backwards and forwards, up and down, all over the pass, whilst the angler sits in the stern holding a rod from which trails some twenty-five yards of line terminating with the five feet of piano wire and the single hook baited with a six-inch strip of grey mullet. Unlike other forms of fishing, the reel is fastened on uppermost, instead of on the underside of the butt, as is usual. On one of the bars of the reel is sewn a leather pad, and in playing a fish one or both thumbs are pressed firmly against this pad, which, bearing on the line on the reel, acts as a very effectual break or drag. Until one is accustomed to it this break is rather awkward to manage; if one presses too hard a breakage and the consequent loss of fish and line may occur; whilst if the pressure of the thumb is too suddenly relaxed, even the best reel may overrun, and then one is indeed lucky if the loose coils and loops of line can be readjusted before similar dire results ensue. The object of this leather break is twofold: firstly, to enable one to put a strong and even drag upon the line while the fish is running; secondly, to enable one to hold the fish firm when he is being led in towards the shore, or brought to the gaff, the ordinary check of the reel not being nearly powerful enough. When the tide is running its strongest the boat is anchored and the second rod is put out and held by the boatman, or guide as he is called, and it is as well to have a longer line out on one rod than on the other.