THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 395 



D 



In the transparent waters of the lagoons and 

 sheltered bays, fishes of great variety and beauty 

 are seen; and as many of them are of large size, 

 and of exquisite flavour, the obtaining of them 

 forms no small part of the occupation of the Poly- 

 nesians. Some of their modes of fishing are highly 

 curious and ingenious. One, which is very suc- 

 cessful, reminds us of a wire mouse-trap. A cir- 

 cular space in the lagoon, of about three or four 

 yards in diameter, is enclosed by building up a 

 wall from the bottom to the surface, in a part where 

 it is not very deep. In one part of the top an 

 opening is left a foot or two wide, and five or six 

 inches deep. From each side of this aperture an- 

 other stone wall, likewise reaching to the surface, 

 is built to the length of fifty or a hundred yards 

 in a diverging direction, so as to include a large 

 space of water, which is open at one end, but, be- 

 coming narrower and narrower, leads into the cir- 

 cular pen. Fishes are usually found in these traps 

 every morning, which are either taken out with a 

 hand-net, or allowed to remain till wanted, as in a 

 preserve. 



Many fishes, which have the habit of springing 



out of water when alarmed, are taken by means 



of rafts. These are from fifteen to twenty feet 



long, and six or eight feet wide, built of light wood, 



such as the native hibiscus. Along one side a fence 



or screen is raised to the height of four or five 



feet, by fixing a row of upright stakes in the raft, 



to which slender poles are attached horizontally, one 



above another. A large party of men proceed with 

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