826 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
For several miles, commencing at the village and running to the 
northward, is a series of smooth beaches, interrupted by an occasional 
stretch of coral. All of the beaches make offshore for some little 
distance. Some are protected from the wind, which has a long sweep 
across the lagoon, by islets lying from a quarter to a half mile offshore. 
In these sheltered places women were fishing with hand nets at the 
time of our arrival. It was noticed here, as at Kusaie, that in connec- 
tion with fishing more or less play was indulged in. No men were 
engaged in fishing or any other labor, probably because nearly all of 
the people of the neighboring islands were at war with each other. — It 
is said that the many islets, shoals, and reefs in the lagoon and on the 
rim of the atoll afford excellent fishing-grounds, where in time of 
peace the natives of all the islands find fish sufficiently abundant to 
supply their needs. Each island is practically independent, its sur- 
rounding reefs supplying the fish and the hillside yielding all the fruit 
2 
Paddling Canoe, Truk Group. 
and vegetables required. These people may have different kinds of 
fishing apparatus, but the only kind in use during our stay was the 
hand wing-shaped net, as described on page 820. 
Our seines were used on the beach for a mile or more north of the 
village, and about 25 miles south of it an afternoon was spent in the 
same work, meeting with considerable success. In the catch were 
small flounders, mullet, crabs, starfish, and shells. Large schools of 
mullet kept a considerable distance from the shore, only a few at a 
time approaching near enough for capture. 
In this group there is a wide difference between the sailing canoe 
and the canoe propelled by paddles. The former, both in construction 
and general appearance, is similar to that of the Marshall Islands. 
The latter is a dugout, and in no way resembles the former. Without 
knowing that both styles of canoes were made by the same people, one 
would naturally suppose that each had been made by a people entirely 
unlike in taste and separated by a long distance. The average length 
of the sailing canoe is 28 feet; width, 16 inches; depth, 37 inches; thick- 
