Underwater Hunting. By Dr. Gilbert Doukan. (Allen and Unwin. I6s.)
TACKLE gets finer but fishermen are un- doubtedly becoming more coarse. Tench are taken with a nylon filament ; trout, according to an awful rumour, are not averse to a March Brown attached to a thing called a bubble-float, and salmon succumb to the slipping clutch and synchro- mesh of a thread line reel. Spear guns are also fashionable in Mediterranean circles. Dr. Doukan shows that you too can hit an octopus between the eyes, a Giant Groper in the gut and congers almost any place from Beachy Head to the Balearics. It requires only diving goggles, a breathing apparatus, a spring gun and a pair of bath- ing pants. The guns are quite remarkable and we have the author's word for it that they can be made out of most things from knitting needles and umbrella spokes to the backbones in granny's corsets. Thereafter it is a matter of skill, lung power and a hunting ground for preference not more than forty-five degrees north or south of the Equator. Dr. Doukan's book has got almost everything except an index.
J. D. H.
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