FIJI-NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITION 45 
amount of frantic struggling will release him, neither will the 
utmost exercise of his strength tear the creature from its anchor- 
age. We heard most tragic stories of victims being held thus un- 
til the rising tide put an end to their lives. 
On one occasion, while working on the tide flats, I put my hand 
under a rock and received a slight cut on the little finger, as 
clean a cut as if made by a scalpel. In a few seconds the pain 
became so severe, even excruciating, that I feared losing conscious- 
ness and toppling over in the shallow water. I contemplated the 
ignominy of drowning in less than a foot of water. The finger 
was red, bled slightly and was slightly swollen. The severe pain 
gradually subsided and was completely gone within an hour. My 
Fiji man said that the wound was inflicted by a little fish no 
larger than one’s finger and that it had sharp horn-like spines 
about its head with which the cut was made. We afterwards 
secured some of these fish, or at least they were so identified by 
Alfred. 
The stings of sea urchins’ spines, cuts from sharp shells and 
jagged rocks and the spicules of sponges are hard on one’s hands. 
Certain polychetous annelids have tufts of fine sete that are ex- 
tremely poisonous, stick into one’s fingers by the hundreds, and 
are as hard to remove as the minute spines of the prickly pear. 
Our hands were often quite sore from one or several of these 
causes. Of course rubber gloves can be worn, but these make the 
handling of small specimens difficult and most of us preferred 
using our bare hands and taking the consequences, painful as 
they were. 
Several species of morays or ‘‘eels’’ were abundant on these 
flats; the larger ones are quite aggressive and able to inflict serious 
wounds with their numerous, needle-like teeth. They are greatly 
disliked by fishermen and dispatched whenever possible. 
On Sunday we rested, shaved and cleaned up generally. I was 
quite astonished while shaving with my Gillette to have Esile, the 
fourteen year old Fiji boy, ask me for a spare blade for his father 
to use. I told him that it was of no use without the rest of the 
razor, whereupon Alfred produced a blade-holder which he said 
came originally from Australia. The blade fitted and Alfred pro- 
ceeded to shave, seated Turk fashion on the ground. 
We strolled around our little domain which was really a most 
attractive spot, nearly surrounded by reefs over which the break- 
ers dashed with thunderous noise resembling distant cannon fire. 
