42 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
with few definite branches. It was grayish in color with very 
prominent non-retractile polyps —a very fine form for class use. 
We also found small colonies of ‘‘organ-pipe coral,’’ and a tabu- 
late aleyonarian. 
A number of sponges were collected but I never attempt iden- 
tifications in this very perplexing group. Many brilliant reef 
fishes were seen in the tide-pools near the outer edge of the reef 
but no attempt to collect these was made that day. 
Reef collecting is downright hard work, especially under a trop- 
ical sun, trudging over the uneven surface of the flats and 
stumbling through the shallow pools. Each of us soon had his 
bucket full of specimens, the smaller ones in bottles and the larger 
ones loose in the bucket. After a half mile walk back to the island 
hurrying to avoid the incoming tide, waist deep in a tide-current 
part of the time, the bucket becoming heavier every minute, we 
were almost exhausted when we finally reached the veranda in 
which we were to install our laboratory. 
A change of clothing and a good dinner prepared by Kalidin 
made us quite fit for the afternoon’s work of caring for and mak- 
ing a preliminary study of our morning’s catch. The Fijians 
brought fresh sea-water to fill all of the buckets and the square 
galvanized iron pans we had found so useful in previous expedi- 
tions. Bottles of various sizes with their stoppers were set out on 
the tables, the labels were put out ready to use and the alcohol 
and formalin placed where they were at hand for the final preser- 
vation of the ‘‘wet’’ specimens. 
Nothing but a rough approximation in the classification of 
specimens was attempted, the mass of material being so great that 
it was a task to put it all in safety before night. Color notes and 
brief descriptions of some of the most interesting forms were 
made, labels written, and the specimens put in preservative as 
rapidly as possible after which the veranda was cleaned up for 
the following day’s:work. By the time all this was accomplished 
we were quite ready to quit work and go to supper. 
The 16-foot whale boat turned over to us by the Colonial Gov- 
ernment proved an elephant on our hands. As a matter of fact 
we had no use for a rowboat in the shallow water inside the flats 
and the surf was too high outside. The boat was too large for us 
to manage with the force at our disposal and had no anchor large 
enough to trust. Moreover, the whale-boat was too heavy for us 
to draw up on the beach. Alfred found a piece of iron with which 
