1910.] AND INVERTEBRATES OF ST. HELENA. 87 



him in his enquiries concerning the fisheries and to make a 

 Report to the Colonial Office on the results of those enquiries. 

 My Report on the practical and commercial aspect of the subject 

 has been already sent to the Secretary of State for the Colonies ; 

 but Mr. Mosely gave me every facility for collecting specimens 

 and doing as much scientific work as was possible in the time 

 available, and the following paper contains the results of my 

 investigations from the scientific point of view. 



I took with me a number of nets of the kinds used in England 

 for the purpose of ascertaining by experiment how far English 

 methods and apparatus would be successful in the waters of 

 St. Helena ; these consisted of a small otter trawl 15 feet wide at 

 the mouth, a trammel 20 fathoms long and 6 feet deep, a seine 

 10 fathoms long and 8 feet deep, and two mackerel drift-nets each 

 20 yards long. I also took a small tow-net of silk bolting cloth. 

 A small spirit tank for carrying preserve! specimens was lent to 

 me by the Fish Department of the British Museum (Natural 

 History); and when my collection grew too large for this I 

 was able to obtain tin-lined cases in the island, which were 

 repaired and soldered down when full by a skilled workman whom 

 Mr. Mosely had taken with him to carry out the curing of mackerel 

 and other fish. 



We left Southampton on Feb. 6th and arrived at Ascension on 

 Saturday, Feb. 20th, at 4.30 a.m. We landed for a couple of 

 hours and saw the turtle ponds. The female turtle land on the 

 sandy beaches of the island from January to June and are 

 captured by being turned over ; they are used as food for the 

 garrison, or rather crew, for Ascension is treated as a ship belonging 

 to the Navy and under the control of the Admiralty. Here also 

 I was interested in the extraordinary numbers of Balistes which 

 swarmed around the ship to feed on the orange-peel, pieces of 

 bread, and other refuse thrown overboard. Before arriving at 

 Ascension, soon after passing Cape Verde, we saw for two whole 

 days large numbers of Yelella at the surface of the sea. They 

 seemed about 4 inches in diameter with the vertical semicircular 

 crest 3 or 4 inches above the surface of the water and of a bright 

 pink colour along its border. I was not able to obtain any 

 specimens, and south of Ascension none were seen. Flying-fish 

 of course were seen in large numbers ; they first appeared after 

 we had passed Cape Verde, and continued to be abundant till we 

 were approaching St. Helena, but during my stay at that island 

 I never saw one. I endeavoured to decide for myself the question 

 whether these fishes move their wings in flight, and convinced 

 myself that the pectoral fins were rapidly vibrating or quivering 

 at the moment when, the fish left the water, but that afterwards 

 during the flight they were perfectly motionless, so that the 

 motion of the fish is like that of an aeroplane. 



We arrived at St. Helena on Monday, Feb. 22nd, a little 

 before midnight, and I spent five weeks on the island. Much of 

 my time was spent in the native fishing-boats, making observa- 

 tions on the different kinds of fishina-. The boats are all small 



