60 Fish Stories 



sive commercial aspirations. In any case, it is now ours, 

 and is likely to remain so; a mere dock and coaling station 

 in the eyes of our American administrators, but to its 

 people, the colony of Tutuila of the United States of 

 America, a position in their eyes far nobler than to be an 

 independent kingdom. Long ago was Pago-Pago ceded 

 to us, and a coaling station established there; but the 

 whole island came to us only on the division, in 1891, 

 of the Samoan group between the United States and 

 Germany. 



The fringing coral reefs of all these islands abound in 

 fishes and invertebrate life. We obtained six hundred and 

 twenty species of these fishes from the harbors of Apia and 

 Pago-Pago, all shore forms of the reefs, there being little 

 opportunity for outside fishing, or collecting from deep 

 water. So large a number is not recorded from any other 

 ports so small as these. 



The flat-topped reefs are partly exposed at low tide, and 

 are covered with pools of every size. The reef itself is 

 loose, and broken at the surface, and fissured on the edges ; 

 and fishes creep, and swim, through all the openings and 

 crevices. The large dead masses of branching corals are 

 also filled with small fishes, slippery morays winding in and 

 out through the open spaces, while gayly colored damsel- 

 fishes and butterfly-fishes cluster in the larger cavities. 

 Everywhere in the tide pools and reef crevices swarm brit- 

 tle-stars, sea-urchins, star-fishes, crabs, sea-worms, and mol- 

 lusks ; under coral blocks, and on the sand floor in shallow 

 water, are hosts of sea-cucumbers (Holothurians) of half a 

 dozen species, while little octopuses go swimming about, 

 scuttling backwards through inky clouds across the pools. 

 The echinoderms are remarkably represented both in num- 

 bers of species and individuals, and include some extraor- 

 dinary forms. At low tide the native women and chil- 

 dren wade and poke about over the reefs, collecting 

 beche-de-mer, octopuses, and sea-urchins for food. They 



