THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 77 



star. However, should they not appear upon that day they 

 can be safelj' calculated upon to arrive that same day four 

 weeks. 



This fishing, one of the romps of the season, is looked forward 

 to by both young and old. When collected, the natives send 

 the palolo all over the island post-haste, as complimentary 

 presents to one another, in the same way that presents of game- 

 are made in the old country. 



Before daylight this morning we were aroused, and soon in 

 the boat en route for the passage in the reef where the palolo 

 were expected to assemble in their millions for their annual 

 single hour's outing either that morning or in four weeks' time. 



After an hour's slow rowing in the dark we arrived some- 

 where — at what particular spot it was impossible to tell, but, 

 judging from the heaving of the boat, we knew that we must be 

 where the sea had an uninterrupted passage through the reef, 

 whose immediate presence was announced by the deafening 

 boom of the breakers dashing on it. 



As soon as there was sufficient light we found that we were 

 in the company of quite fifty canoes, of all sorts and sizes, 

 prettily and lightly balancing themselves for a moment at a 

 time on the summits of the swells as they sullenly rolled in 

 through the now visible passage, guarded on both sides by an 

 expanse of seething water, where the interrupting coral bars the 

 onward course of the ever-persistent billows. 



As the light grew apace, everyone there, scoop in hand, 

 prepared alike for business and for a practical joke — which 

 here consists in upsetting one another's canoes — and each 

 determined, with light heart, devoid of all care, to make the 

 best of the most cherished, though shortest, annual festival. 



The canoes now scattered about in all directions, the 

 occupants anxiously scanning the water as they flitted here, 

 there, and everywhere in search of the game, but with no 

 result. The little animals had evidently determined upon 

 availing themselves of the four weeks' grace that Nature, in 

 ■obedience to some inexplicable law, or in some freak, had 

 granted them. 



(A month later) — Spread all about the passage, this time quite 

 ■smooth, we anxiously examined the water on all sides, in 

 which to some depth nothing at all could be discerned ; but 

 suddenly, as if let loose at the one exact time, were to be seen 

 wriggling and writhing up from the nethermost depths millions 

 upon millions of long, thread-like worms of many colours, all 

 seeming to be racing at their topmost speed to arrive at 

 the surface and make the most of the short time per- 

 mitted them for their annual exhibition. Up they came in 

 myriads until the surface was thickly covered with one solid 

 vermiculating mass of living animals. 



