SANDAL BAY, LIFU. 731 



I had suffered so much mortification, that I shipped in a small half-decked cutter called 

 the " Marie Therese," with a dangerous native called Pedro as skipper. The boat 

 manifested a pronounced tendency to capsize, and had actually turned turtle on a previous 

 occasion when several Isle of Pines men were drowned. We did not clear the point of 

 Mare* without a mishap, as the boat, failing to respond when we were coming about, 

 was driven upon a reef-patch, where she toppled over on her beam-ends. By poling and 

 shoving we managed to escape on the crest of a wave and put back in a leaky condition 

 to Netchi. 



My only course now was to reopen negotiations with Waiyowara, and by dint of 

 allowing him a just measure of reproach and other concessions he consented to land 

 me at Chepenehe on Lifu, where I had been informed a trader, Mr James Wright, had 

 a station. After reporting myself, upon arrival, to the French Resident, I arranged to 

 stay in a small outhouse belonging to Mr Wright and take pot-luck with him for my 

 food. I stayed here for some eight months, in the course of which some Nautili which 

 I had succeeded in keeping alive in captivity deposited their eggs in my cages. Most 

 unfortunately these eggs proved to be infertile, an eventuality which the marine zoologist 

 rarely expects to encounter, though it would not surprise an ornithologist. 



The wanderings which I have described in the foregoing pages were all directed to 

 one end. I wished to find a locality where Nautilus could be both captured and kept 

 prisoner in a moderate depth of water, in four or five fathoms instead of forty or fifty. 

 Here on the shore of Sandal Bay, Lifu, I had come upon the ideal ground for which 

 I had been searching. 



The rocky shore at this part of the bay is riddled with a labyrinth of creeks, 

 crannies and blowholes. In calm weather some of these natural tanks present a tempting 

 appearance as if constructed for the benefit of a vagrant naturalist. I soon found 

 however that the wash of the tide, exerting a powerful suction through the narrow 

 holes and crevices, rendered these pools quite useless for my purposes. Nevertheless the 

 thought occurred to me that it would not be a matter of insuperable difficulty, given 

 proper equipment and organisation, to construct a marine reservoir with concrete walls in 

 which refractory animals might be successfully reared, by being accorded a larger measure 

 of liberty than is possible even in the best fish-trap. Such a tank could also be made 

 to serve useful purposes, as for example the breeding of Holothurians from which trepang 

 or beche-de-mer is prepared. Unless the eggs of Nautilus are destined to be taken 

 in a fertile condition at Negros in the Philippines I can offer no other suggestion than 

 the above for the benefit of future naturalist-venturers. 



Almost any kind of animal bait may be used to attract Nautilus to the fish-traps. 

 Accompanied by my man Saono, an excellent woodman, boatman and diver, I made 

 frequent excursions into the bush to procure land-crabs, which live in holes in the ground 

 beneath stones and logs. To the experienced eye their presence can be known without 

 turning over a stone, by the neatly cleaned and levelled threshold made by the crabs 

 at the entrance to their retreats. When the stone is removed the crab may be at the 

 top, in which case it scampers away, or it may be in the hole, which is perhaps a foot 

 long but only a few inches below the surface. The females of these crabs pass into 

 the "berried" stage in November and December when they troop down to the sea to 



w. vi. 96 



