i8 95 . IN THE HOME OF THE NAUTILUS. 409 



decorating, painting, and pouring sand and ashes on the body, and 

 all were chewing the betel. After the body had been laid in the 

 grave, I, for my part, received a fathom and a half of dewarra. 

 The price of a canoe is 20 fathoms. 



Before speaking of the Nautilus I may record the occurrence of 

 a Tornaria in Blanche Bay. I have also found metamorphosing 

 larvae of Balanoglossus, but cannot say whether they and the Tornaria 

 belong to the same cycle of development. The small Heteropod, 

 Atlanta, is very abundant, but, while those dredged from the surface 

 are sluggish and usually retracted in their shells, those dredged from 

 a depth of 20 to 30 fathoms are as active and brisk as possible. 



The native name of the Nautilus in the Gazelle Peninsula is 

 " pal-a-lialia." 6 It is found in Blanche Bay at a depth of more than 

 70 fathoms, and is caught in large barrel-shaped baskets made of 

 bamboo slips bound together by rattan, and provided with an 

 internal basket-work which serves as a trap (see vignette at end). 

 These fish-baskets are baited by suspending a number of small, 

 smooth-skinned fish, called " malabur," inside. We obtain the malabur 

 by exploding a charge of dynamite in the midst of a shoal of the fish. 

 The baited baskets are lowered to the bottom after sunset and 

 left there for several hours, when they are hauled up and may, or 

 may not, contain several individuals. Often as many as six are 

 obtained in one haul, and if several canoes are engaged in the fishing 

 it is possible to secure some two dozen individuals in one night. 



I will now give a brief summary of the observations I have so 

 far made on N. pompilius. 



1. Mode of Occurence. — The Nautilus occurs in Blanche Bay 

 throughout the season of the north-west monsoon, and this is already 

 a fact of some importance, since it is thereby available for investiga- 

 tion the whole year round [and not merely during the S.E. monsoon] . 

 The specimen on which Owen founded his classical memoir was 

 obtained by Bennett off the New Hebrides in the month of August, 

 i.e., in the south-east season. 



In the laboratory book at Buftenzorg there is an entry, made by 

 Semon in 1893, containing the following statement referring to the 

 Molluccas : — " Nach ubereinstimmender Aussage alter Fischerdort, 

 ist das Meer wahrend der Zeit des S. O. Mons. (Mai-October) sehr 

 viel tierreicher als in der des N.W. Mons. Nautilus wird beinah 

 ausschliesslich nur in ersterer Jahreszeit gefangen (geangelt)." 

 Further, in response to an inquiry as to the occurrence of the 

 Nautilus at the Philippine Islands, the necessity of going there at 

 the right time of the year, viz., April to July, was strongly impressed 

 upon me by Dr. D. C. Worcester, of the University of Michigan. 



'■"Pal" means a "house," and "lia" means "above" or " beyond," so that 



"pal-a-lialia" signifies "house above house," and evidently refers to the chambered 



structure of the shell. 



2 G 



