CARIBBEAN EXPEDITION, 1956 — SCHMITT 457 



from and to the town of Codrington on the eastern shore of the lagoon. 

 It is in this relatively quiet inland sea that the faggot fishery is carried 

 on. For the spiny lobsters, Panulirus argiis, called crawfish in Florida, 

 and crawfish or langouste in the West Indies generally, the lagoon 

 seems to constitute a huge nursery. It is this circumstance, coupled 

 with the relatively shallow water in much of the lagoon, that makes 

 this unique method of fishing possible. In suitable parts of the lagoon, 

 in about half to three-quarters of a fathom of water, the natives build 

 up piles of waterlogged brush, tree limbs, and small stumps. This pile 

 of "faggots" is usually about 4i£ feet high and roughly 6 or more feet 

 in diameter. Left to soak undisturbed for some weeks, it becomes a 

 well-populated refuge or shelter for young lobsters. These are then 

 secured by surrounding the pile of faggots with a seine or gill net of 

 sufficiently small mesh. Then the fishermen stand within the en- 

 circling net and toss over the faggots to form a new pile just outside 

 the net. Thus the faggot fishery is a continuing one. When all the 

 faggots have been removed, the net is pursed at the bottom and the 

 catch dumped into the sloop in which the natives travel about the 

 lagoon. In the haul described there were 26 sizable lobsters. The 

 three fisherman who put on the "performance" for us maintain seven of 

 these faggot piles, in addition to whatever other fishing or agricultural 

 work they may do. 



Ashore with his light-trap set overnight, Dr. Clarke secured no less 

 than 3,000 specimens of the tiny moths, Microlepidoptera, that he es- 

 pecially sought. Also, in the course of a hike to the so-called south 

 landing, from the reefs there, additional forms of marine life were 

 collected, and on the road to and through the brush from the landing 

 Dr. Clarke got many other unexpected insects from bromeliads and 

 other vegetation that he hacked to pieces on the way. 



From Barbuda we returned to Antigua, but our stopover this sec- 

 ond time was scarcely longer than necessary to stock up for the last lap 

 of the cruise, and to await Mr. May's arrival by plane. This was 

 his first opportunity to "sign on" following Mr. Bredin's return to 

 the States from Martinique. 



Nevis was our next destination. On the way, early in the afternoon, 

 we found ourselves passing close to that isolated volcanic "extrusion*' 

 from the bottom of the sea, Redonda. About 20 years ago I had hoped 

 to land on this small uninhabited island, but was thwarted by the 

 high seas beating against its precipitous cliffs and boulder-strewn 

 shores. For all these years I had wanted to get back to secure a few 

 specimens of the "phosphate rock" formerly "mined" here for our 

 late chief geologist, Dr. William F. Foshag, who had always wanted 

 some of it. This year I was able to gratify that ambition; the sea 

 was calmer, and the surf ashore far less forbidding. The captain 



