746 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



The captain of the vessel says there was no lack of fish at any time, and if the 

 fishermen could have been properly trained to the work the experiment would have 

 been a brilliant success. ]\lost of the fishing was done with trolling and hand lines, 

 as tho nets would not work well on the coral reefs, frequently tearing, and the 

 numerous sharks about the reefs also did much damage to them. 



FISH PONDS. 



The most interesting of the fishery resources of the islands are the fish ponds. 

 This is the only place in United States territory where fish ponds are found on such an 

 immense scale and put to such general and beneficent use. The time of the building 

 of many of them goes back into the age of fable, the Hawaiians, for instance, 

 attributing the construction of one of the most ancient, the deep-water fish pond 

 wall at the Huleia River on Kauai, to the Menehunes, a mythical race of dwarfs, 

 distinguished for cunning industry and mechanical and engineering skill and intelli- 

 gence. Many of the very old ponds are still in practical use and look as though they 

 would last for centuries. As the ponds were originally owned by the kings and 

 chiefs, it is very probable that most of them were built by the forced labor of the 

 common people. There is a tradition among the natives that Loko Wekolo (W'ekolo 

 pond), on Pearl Plarbor, Oahu, was built about two hundred and fifty years ago, and 

 that the nati\es formed a line from the shore to the mountain and passed the lava 

 rock from hand to hand till it reached the shore where the building was going on 

 without once touching the ground in transit. As the distance is considerablj^ over- 

 a mile, this is significant of the densitj' of the population at that time. 



The ponds are found principally in the bays indenting the shores of the islands, 

 the common method of construction having been to build a wall of lava rock across 

 the narrowest part of the entrance to a small bay or bight of land and use the 

 inclosed space for the pond. Ponds were also built on the seashore itself, the wall 

 in this case being run out from two points on the shore, some distance apart, in the 

 shape of a half circle. Most of the Molokai fish ponds were built in this manner. 

 A few were constructed somewhat interior, and these are filled by the fresh water 

 streams from the mountains or by tidal water from the sea carried to them by means 

 of ditches. Most of the interior ponds are on Oahu, near Honolulu. The Nomilo 

 fish pond at Lawai, on Kauai, is formed from an old volcanic crater with an opening 

 toward the sea across which a wall has been built, and as the opening is below the 

 surface of the sea the tide plays in and out when the gates are opened. 



In the sea ponds the walls are about 5 feet in width and are built somewhat 

 loosely, in order that the water may percolate freely. The interior ponds ha\e dirt 

 sides generally, although a few have rock walls covered with dirt, while others have 

 rock walls backed with dirt. The sea ponds generally have sluice gates which can be 

 raised or lowered, or else which open and close like a door. In the interior ponds 

 there are usually two small bulkheads with a space about 8 feet square between 

 them. Each of these has a small door which usually slides up or down. When the 

 tide is coming in both doors are opened and the fish are allowed to go in freely. 

 At the turn of the tide the doors are closed. When the owner wishes to remove any 

 of the fish he generally opens the inner door when the tide is ebbing. The fish rush 

 into the narrow space between the bulkheads, from which they are dipped out by 



