THE COMPLETED ATOLL, 245 



in the fall and winter, but I never found any evidence of their 

 breeding there. They do not leave the island in quest of prey, 

 but may be seen at low-tide picking up their food on the reef, 

 which is then almost dry. 



" Some of the social habits of these birds are worthy ot 

 remark. The gannets and boobies usually crowd together in 

 a very exclusive manner. The frigate birds likewise keep 

 themselves distinct from other kinds. The tern appropriate to 

 themselves a certain portion of the island ; each family collects 

 in its accustomed roosting place, but all in peace and harmony. 

 The feud between the fishing birds and their oppressors, the 

 frigate birds, is only active in the air; if the gannet or booby 

 can but reach the land and plant its feet on the ground, the 

 pursuer gives up the chase immediately." 



* 



The extensive reefs about coral islands, as already stated, 

 abound in fish, which are easily captured, and the natives, with 

 wooden hooks, often bring in larger kinds from the deep 

 waters. From such resources a population of 7,000 persons 

 is supported on the single island of Taputeuea, whose whole 

 habitable area does not exceed six square miles. 



There are also shell-fish of edible kinds, and others that are 

 the source of considerable activity in pearl-fishing. 



An occasional log drifts to the shores, and at some of the 

 more isolated atolls, where the natives are ignorant of any land 

 but the spot they inhabit, they are deemed direct gifts from a 

 propitiated deity. These drift-logs were noticed by Kotzebue 

 at the Marshall Islands, and he remarked also that they often 

 brought stones in their roots. Similar facts have been observed 

 at the Gilbert Group, and also at Enderbury's Island, and many 

 other coral islands in the Pacific. The stones at the Gilbert 

 Islands, as far as could be learned, are generally basaltic or 

 volcanic, and they are highly valued among the natives for 

 whetstones, pestles, and hatchets. The logs are claimed by 

 the chiefs for canoes. Some of the logs seen by the author, 

 like those at Enderbury's Island, were forty feet or more long. 

 Several large masses of compact cellular lava occur on Rose 



