THE FISHES OF OKINAWA, ONE OF THE RIU KIU 



ISLANDS. 



By John Otterbein Snyder, 



Of Stanford University, California. 



This account of the fishes of Okinawa is based on a collection made 

 by members of the United States Bureau of Fisheries steamer Alba- 

 tross at the time of her cruise during 1906 in the north Pacific Ocean 

 and along the shores of Japan. On the arrival of the Albatross in 

 Japan, the writer and Mr. Mchitaro Sindo, a student of Stanford 

 University, were detached from the vessel and intrusted with a 

 study of the shore fishes. The party visited various points along 

 the coast from Otaru in Hokkaido to Oldnawa, one of the Riu Kiu 

 Islands. Five days beginning with August 13 were spent at the latter 

 place, most of the time being consumed in an examination of the tide 

 pools near Naha and Itoman, The market, open for an hour or two 

 each evening, was regularly visited and an attempt made to procure 

 specimens of each species that appeared there. 



The excellent results obtained from our short stay at Naha were 

 made possible through the kindly interest of Baron Shigeru Narahara, 

 governor of the Province, the chief and other officers of the police 

 force of Naha, the town officials of Itoman, and the teachers of the 

 fisheries school at the same place. 



Okinawa, the largest of the Riu Kiu or Luchu Islands, lies about 

 halfway between KJiu Siu and Formosa, directly in the path of the 

 Kuro Shiwo, the great warm current that passes northward along 

 the eastern shores of Japan. Its climate is hot and humid. Tlie 

 island appears to be a coral formation, no volcanic or sedimentary 

 rocks appearing on the surface. Near the harbor of Naha the coast 

 is fringed with growing coral reefs, and the rocks near shore are 

 conglomerates of disintegrated corals. The outlying reefs, the gently 

 sloping beaches, seamed and carved by the tides, and the intervening 

 region of broken corals and beds of sand and mud offer retreats for 

 vast numbers of fishes and other marine forms.* 



• Interesting in this connection is the rather naive account of Bayard Taylor in the narrative of the 

 expedition to Japan under the command of Commodore Perry. In his description of the port of Naha 

 Taylor says: "Here the Httle pools which seamed the surface were alive with crabs, enails, starfish, sea- 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 42— No. 1913. 



487 



