190 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



large sharks caught, not, however, without the manifesta- 

 tion of great skill and patience on the part of the 

 fishermen who, in their frail canoes, dared to try con- 

 clusions with these ravening monsters of the deep. 

 Sometimes, but not often, a hook-shape stone was 

 found, or a fragment that might with infinite patience 

 be chipped into hook-shape; but these stone-hooks 

 were never in much favour. Small harpoons, or fish- 

 spears, tipped with sharp shells cut with barbs were 

 also used, and even the children used to catch small 

 fish in the shallows with tiny darts fabricated for them 

 by fond parents. By such means did the Hawaiian 

 natives secure for themelves an ample supply of fish 

 wherewith to flavour their vegetable-food, and they at 

 least could never have been accused of neglecting the 

 plentiful supplies afforded them by the ocean. 



Coming farther south, among the more thickly 

 clustered groups of islands, we find the same careful 

 attention paid to the wealth of the sea. Indeed, it 

 would have been more than strange if it had not been 

 so, seeing how, in the vicinity of all the islands, the 

 waters teem with fish, even in the heart of the tropics. 

 The procedure of fishing varies with the genius of the 

 inhabitants, as might have been expected, but it all 

 had a family resemblance, and with all of them there 

 was the same readiness to eat the fish raw if fire was 

 not easy to obtain, as in a canoe at a good distance 

 from land ; for these natives, unlike the Fuegians of 

 Magellan's Straits, do not carry a fire in their canoes. 

 But some, notably the Tahitians and Fijians, went to 

 the length of weaving rude nets, with which they 

 secured splendid hauls of fish occasionally ; only, 

 having no means of preserving their catch, they did 



