778 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
in an ordinary canoe. An effort was made to purchase one, but the 
owner could not be persuaded to part with it. Length of car, 9 feet 
6 inches; width, 3 feet; depth, 2 feet 6 inches. 
Almost every species of fish, including sharks, found on the reef are 
taken in the stone traps. Most of the small fish are speared; sharks 
are taken in seines, the seine placed at the mouth of the trap and 
dragged inside toward the head, which causes the sharks to become 
entangled in its folds, when they are easily captured. Sharks are taken 
mostly for their fins and tails; they are sold to traders, who in turn 
dispose of them to Chinese. 






























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Z 



Fish-car, Bora Bora. 
The beach in front of the village proved too rough for seine work. 
Hauls were made in all the available places, including two sloughs; 
mullet and crabs were the principal species taken. A fish-trap and a 
crab net set on a reef close to the ship were found empty, and hand 
lines were also tried unsuccessfully. 
THE COOK ISLANDS. 
On November 21 we arrived at Aitutaki, an island belonging to the 
Cook or Hervey group. Having been informed that our time on 
shore would be limited, the only apparatus taken ashore was a small 
seine. The beach near the village was found to be very smooth. The 
seine was hauled six times, and five species of fish were caught. 
We learned that nearly all of the fish consumed at the village were 
taken on the reef and off a number of islets lying to the southward. 
On the reef surrounding the islets are several stone traps built on the 
same plan as those in the Paumotu group. The rim of the barrier 
reef near the village is quite wide, and on it are many pools in which 
fish are found at low water. 
The natives of this island have three ways of taking fish from the 
traps—with spear, with a basket-shaped dip net, and with a heavy 
piece of webbing used in the manner of a drag seine, as at Bora Bora. 
Many of the fish which enter the traps are comparatively large, and 
the apparatus for capturing them is correspondingly strong. 
The bow of the basket-shaped net is 9 feet long and 3 feet wide, 
