from the Snndtvkh Islands, 33 



bious race is derived from the seas, in which many of them almost dwell, 

 and all of them delight; but the food obtained from this source by the 

 common people is limited to the various species of Crustacea and Mollusca. 

 They are strictly prohibited from appropriating the fishes to their own 

 use, although to collect these for the benefit of the higher classes is 

 imposed on them as a tax. It forms indeed a very important part of the 

 employment of the common people to search among the pools left by the 

 retiring tide for the smaller fry, .which may be there retained, and to con- 

 vey them to ponds, in which, in a short time, they increase to a size fit for 

 the table. The quality of the water in the ponds will be best explained 

 by the following quotation from Mr. Frembly's private Journal. 



" In our ramble to-day along the shore towards Whyateti," a village 

 on the south coast of Wahaoo, east of Honoruru the capital, " our atten- 

 tion was directed to the several embanked ponds which lie contiguous to 

 the beach. These we learned were the Royal Preserves for fish, by 

 which a constant supply was obtained for the use of the King and Chiefs : 

 the Kanakas, or common people, being interdicted the produce of them. 

 On examination of these ponds, we observed that they received their 

 principal supply of water by means of small canals leading from the hills 

 immediately aback of them; but, from the lowness of the coast, it appears 

 not improbable that at high water the sea communicates with them, as it 

 evidently flowed into the small channels or ditches which generally sepa- 

 rate one inclosure from another. Whether, however, there is a direct 

 communication between these channels and the ponds, we did not deter- 

 mine : one circumstance adds great strength to the supposition that this 

 is the case, which is, that the bottoms of the dried up inclosures were 

 observed to be thickly incrusted with salt," 



" These observations," Mr. Frembly remarks, " refer to the ponds 

 situated the farthest inland in this vicinity. Others there are which ex- 

 tend quite into the sea, and are apparently supplied wholly with sea- 

 water: others again, as those in the Pearl Lochs, (west of Honoruru,) 

 must, if entirely filled from the Lochs, be much tempered with fresh 

 water, as, in some parts of the Lochs, the water is almost drinkable." 



From these extracts it is evident that in the ponds the salt water is 

 diluted by the admixture of a quantity of fresh, varying according to cir- 



VOL. IV. C 



