FIJI-NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITION 165 
there is a large stack with a big sea cave on its sea-ward side. It 
is now quite out of the reach of the waves. 
The next day found us approaching the northeast coast of Viti- 
levu. Beyond Tova Peak the vegetation clearly shows the effect 
of diminished rainfall. It is brown in color, scrubby, and there 
are very few trees of any size. Before reaching Ellington, our 
landing place, several small islands appear on the right. One of 
these, we were told, is owned by a German who vowed when the 
war broke out not to have his hair cut until Germany won the 
war. He finally had it cut in 1920. His island is remarkable for 
the large grove of Casuarines growing upon it. Ellington is 
merely the deep water entry for Penang which was our objective. 
Here we were met by a constabulary officer, Mr. S. F. Sanders, 
who has charge of the police force of the Ra province. 
At Ellington we found a representative of the Department of 
Agriculture busily engaged in exterminating a thistle-like plant 
(Xanthium strumarium) which had gained a foothold from some 
Australian cargo. It was spreading with alarming rapidity and 
threatening to choke out native crops and grasses. 
In the mangrove swamps near this place is a species of strange 
fish locally called the gobi or tiloko. It is about six inches in 
length, its eyes protrude like those of a crab, and its pectoral fins 
are so modified that it can cling with them to sticks and stones. 
It passes over the water with a series of hops and skips and re- 
fuses unless cornered to disappear into the deeper parts of a pool. 
After desperate efforts to catch one a shilling was offered a native 
woman if she got us a dozen upon our return later in the week. 
Upon the return the fish were presented us in a closed pail and 
we repaired to a room in which were a table and some chairs to 
transfer our gobi to a jar of preservative. The lid was no sooner 
lifted than out jumped most of them and they had to be chased 
about and caught like so many grasshoppers. The reader can 
imagine our surprise at the activity and elusiveness of animals 
which are normally helpless on the land. 
Penang is reached by a narrow gauge, two-foot railway owned 
and operated by the Penang Sugar Company of Melbourne. It 
seems to be entirely independent of the Colonial Sugar Refining 
Company which owns and controls the great mills at Lautoka and 
Nausori. The Penang plant is equipped with up-to-date machinery 
but the low price of sugar in 1922 compelled it to operate at a 
very low margin if not at an actual loss. 
