CHAPTER XXXVI 



THE GAME FISHES OF HAWAII 



' And there were crystal pools, peopled with fish, 

 Argent and gold ; and some of Tyrian skin. 

 Some crimson-barred.' 



Thomas Hood. 



THE angler wlio visits the Hawaiian Islands, H of an inquir- 

 ing turn of mind, will observe two peculiarities in the fish 

 life. They are beautiful beyond adequate description, and 

 appear to be entirely different from those of any other locality. 

 It is a weU-estabhshed fact that the fishes of this region are 

 isolated and peculiar to a remarkable degree ; and there are 

 many species indigenous to the Islands and absolutely unique. 

 Why this is so, the angler may demonstrate by studying the 

 great ocean currents and the locality. The Islands are alone," 

 in the centre, one might say, of a great whirlpool or vortex. Up 

 from the islands of Clarion and Socorro, of the Eevillagigedos 

 group, sweeps a great current, passing to the north and west by 

 the Islands and on to the Ladrones. Over to the north flows the 

 great sea-river, Kuro-SMwo, carrying soft whispering winds 

 and summer to the coast of California, where, perceptibly cooled, 

 it is deflected to the south, yet modifying the entire coast and 

 forming a highway down which wander fishes of Japan, Otchotch 

 an^ Alaska. To the north-east is an extraordinary spiral cur- 

 rent, known as Fleurien's Whirlpool. Westward from the 

 vicinity of Hawaii flows a great current, the hot Celebes river of 

 the ocean, which becomes the great Black Current of Japan, 

 the Kuro-SMwo, which we have seen. To the north are the 

 islands discovered by Captain Cook, among the most beautiful 

 and romantic of all the islands of the Pacific — the greatest and 



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