COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 427 
FISH PONDS. 
The most interesting of the fishery resources of the islands are the 
fish-ponds. This is the only place within the limits of the United 
States where they are found on such an immense scale and put to such 
general and beneficent use. The time of the building of many of these 
ponds goes back into the age of fable, the Hawaiians, for instance, 
attributing the construction of one of the most ancient, the deep-water 
fish-pond wall at the Huleia River on Kauai, to the Menehunes, a 
fabled race of dwarfs, distinguished for cunning industry and mechan- 
ical and engineering skill and intelligence. Many of the very old 
ponds are still in practical use and look as though they would last 
for centuries yet. As the ponds were originally owned by the kings 
and chiefs, it is very probable that most of them were built by the 
forced labor of the common people. There is a tradition amongst the 
natives that Loko Wekolo (Wekolo pond), on Pearl Harbor, Oahu, 
was built about 250 years ago, and that the natives formed a line from 
the shore to the mountain and passed the lava rock from hand to hand 
till it reached the shore where the building was going on without once 
touching the ground in transit. As the distance is considerably over 
a mile, this speaks well for the density of the population at that time. 
The ponds are found principally in the bays indenting the shores of 
the islands, the common method of construction having been to build 
a wall of lava rock across the narrowest part of the entrance to a small 
bay or bight of land and use the inclosed space for the pond. They 
were also built on the seashore itself, the wall in this case being run 
out from two points on the shore, some distance apart, in the shape of 
a half-circle. Most of the Molokai fish ponds were built in this man- 
ner. A few were constructed somewhat interior and these are filled 
by the fresh-water streams from the mountains or by tidal water from 
the sea carried to them by means of ditches. Most of the latter are 
on Oahu, near Honolulu. The Nomilo fish pond at Lawai, on Kauai, 
is formed from an old volcanic crater with an opening toward the 
sea, across which a wall has been built, and as the opening is below the 
surface of the sea the tide plays in and out when the gates are opened. 
In the sea ponds the walls are about 5 feet in width and are built 
somewhat loosely in order that the water can percolate freely. The 
interior ponds have dirt sides generally, although a few have rock 
walls covered with dirt, while others have rock walls backed with dirt. 
The sea ponds generally have sluice gates which can be raised or 
lowered, or else which open and close like a door. In the interior 
ponds there are usually two small bulkheads with a space about 8 feet 
square between them. Each of these has a small door which usually 
slides up or down. When the tide is coming in both doors are opened 
and the fish are allowed to go in freely. When the tide turns the doors 
are closed. When the owner wishes to remove any of the fish he 
generally opens the inner door when the tide is ebbing. The fish rush 
