l.-)G FISHING. 



off the St. Christoval coast; thus the men of Wano visit for this 

 purpose the i«let of Maoraha, about 12 miles down the coast ; 

 whilst those of Sulagina cross over to the^ Three Sisters, which are 

 about the same distance away. 



Dip-nets, such as I have seen in common use on the banks of 

 the Chinese rivers, are here employed, though on a .smaller scale, for 

 catching small fish. They are usually 7 or 8 feet across, and are 

 stretched on two crossed bamboos. Seine-nets, rnucli piized b}'- the 

 natives on account of the labour expended in making them, and 

 buojxd up with floats of the square fruits of the Barringtonia 

 speciosa, are commonly employed. 'J'here are other modes of net- 

 fishing, of which I am ignorant, some of which probably came under 

 the notice of the officers of the survey : and J hope that in reading 

 these remarks they may be induced to supplement them with addi- 

 tional information. 



The fish-hooks employed vary in form and workmanship in 

 different parts of the group. In the sheltered harbour of Makira, 

 the natives whiff in small outrigsrer-canoes for a small fish of the 

 size of a smelt, using very fine lines and small delicately made hooks 

 of mother-of-pearl. During our stay at the island of Simbo or 

 Eddystone, one of the principal articles of exchange between the 

 natives and ourselves was a somewhat clumsy kind of fish-hook 

 used for catching large fish. The shank is of pearl-shell cut in the 

 shape of the body of a small fish, 2 to 2| inches long, and rather less 

 than half an inch wide. The hook itself, which is destitute of barbs 

 and is made of tortoise-shell, is bound by strong twine to the tail- 

 end of the .shank. Considerable labour must be expended in making- 

 one of the.se hooks : but so eager were the natives for tobacco, that 

 we were able to obtain them for small pieces of this article which 

 could not have been worth more than half a farthing. It is worthy 

 of note that in the island of Treasury, about 80 miles to the north- 

 west, these hooks are not made by the natives, who wei^e anxious to 

 obtain from us those which we had brought from Simbo. Very 

 similar, though larger, hooks are used by the natives of other Pacific 

 groups ; amongst them I may refer to those employed by the 

 Society Islanders^ for catcliing dolphin.s, albicores, and bonitos. 

 These hooks, wherever they arc used, as I need scarcely add, answer 

 the purpose of both hook and bait. The fish-hooks of European 

 manufacture, which are one of the articles used in trading wuth the 

 ^ finis's " Polynesian Researches," vol. I. p. 146. 



