TRAPPING NAUTILUS. 699 



We then moved on a short distance until we arrived opposite " house belong To- 

 gogi " ; here we lowered once more, hauling up again shortly after midnight. This 

 time we were fortunate in the capture of two specimens, a large mature male and 

 an immature female. The second canoe now rejoined us in order to hand over their 

 bag which amounted to six specimens, and we then returned to Vulcan Island. On the 

 following morning between 7 and 8 o'clock, To-vungia came across from Davaun 

 bringing seven more Nautili caught overnight. 



Of the fifteen individuals procured on this occasion only two were females and 

 this numerical disproportion between the sexes was maintained, with greater or less 

 variation, in the subsequent takings. 



One more incident may suffice to complete my description of the Nautilus-fishery 

 in Blanche Bay. On January 21, four canoes, each carrying a baited fish-trap, left 

 Vulcan Island at 5.30 p.m. to sink the baskets on the i^cm^ws-ground. 



I accompanied them as before in To-kiap's canoe. Having cast off the floats we 

 went ashore at Davaun to rest, lying down on plaited cocoa-nut leaves placed on the 

 ground. At about 10 o'clock, a gale of wind and rain burst upon us and I adjourned, 

 with To-mangiau and To-kiap, into the latter's house, a good weather-proof palm-leaf 

 hut, but very small. There were already two men asleep on the ground and a fire 

 burning in the middle. However, we went in and lay down to sleep through the 

 gale which lasted until midnight, and it was not before 1.30 a.m. that our members 

 were sufficiently roused to be able to set out for the purpose of raising our baskets. My 

 basket contained six Nautili, and altogether the catch amounted to twenty-one, of which 

 sixteen were males. Upon commencing to return to Vulcan Island, the clouds looked 

 so black and threatening ahead, lowering ominously over the summits of the Mother 

 and Daughters, that we reluctantly deemed it necessary to put back to Davaun. 

 Accordingly we returned to enjoy the shelter of To-kiap's roof once more and hardly 

 had we regained it when the storm-clouds broke and converted the bay, for the time 

 being, into a howling wilderness. We had in fact just been able to haul in our traps 

 in the interval between two severe squalls. 



Just as the local inhabitants regard Blanche Bay as the source of the sea, so as 

 I lay prone upon my mat listening to the raging of the elements it seemed to my 

 fancy to be the very cauldron in which the north-west squalls were brewed. 



Nautilus is thus trapped in the watches of the night and it is " tambu " to speak 

 while the lines are being hauled up from the depths. At first I was liable to 

 desecrate the performance by breaking the silence to utter some jargon of "pidgin 

 English " or perhaps mutilated patois, but I soon learned to respect the unwritten law. 



The fish-baskets are large barrel-shaped contrivances made by interlacing bamboo- 

 slips bound together by rattan fibre. They are five or six feet in length and three or 

 four feet across the middle; they are furnished at each end with an inverted funnel 

 terminating in a forest of loose slips which lie across the inner mouth of the funnel 

 and, while not preventing the entrance of various marine animals such as Nautilus, 

 fishes, sea-urchins and Crustacea, effectually foil their attempts to escape. 



The construction of these fish-traps varies in certain particulars of minor import- 

 ance although carefully considered by their makers. When not in use they are stored 



w. vi. 92 



