48 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



During further visits to Canton Island on May 12 and 13 and again 

 from May 23 to 27 , I collected fishes and invertebrates in Canton 

 Island lagoon, obtaining a rare trumpet fish and about 90 other 

 kinds of fishes. 



While the ship was at Pago Pago, June 2 to 8, I collected fishes 

 with the help of Frank Taiga, native Polynesian ; we took about a 

 thousand specimens, representing over a hundred species, in one 

 afternoon on a reef at Alofau, Tutuila Island. 



Eleven days on Rose Atoll. June 11 to 21, resulted in the capture 

 of over a hundred kinds of fishes, besides the collecting of specimens 

 of lava rock, corals, mollusks, invertebrates, and several birds. In the 

 tops of the Pisonia trees that formed a large grove on Rose Island 

 were nesting boobies and frigate birds, and underneath on the ground 

 sooty terns were nesting. 



The fringing reef of Rose Atoll is dotted with big chunks of coral. 

 That these boulders were once coral heads broken off the margin of 

 the reef and rolled inward by big storms seems clear, as it was found 

 upon examination that the corals making them up are nor now in 

 their normal growing positions, but lie in almost any direction as 

 determined by the position in which the boulders came to rest. 



My one day, June 27, on Tau Island was a great success, for in 

 about 4 hours 1 was able to get about 800 fishes, which, when sorted, 

 revealed over 90 species. Here I was amazed to see several little 

 Polynesian boys dive in and catch a number of fish for me. 



On Hull Island from July 7 to 18, I was fortunate in obtaining 

 many fishes as the result of blasting with TXT by the Navy, both on 

 the reef and in a big channel among coral heads. On this island, as on 

 several other islands of the Phoenix group, may be found old stone 

 ruins, some of which were left by the early Polynesians who visited 

 these islands before their discovery by white men. 



The coral atolls, such as Canton, Enderbury, Hull, Rose, and 

 Swains, have fringing reefs from 200 to 500 feet wide, nearly flat 

 and level, but with slightly elevated areas 1 or 2 feet higher near 

 the outer margin where the waves break at low tide and cut parallel 

 channels that extend inward as far as 150 feet, but averaging about 

 50 feet. When the reef is just awash, the waves break over its slightly 

 elevated margins and the water flows out through the channels, surg- 

 ing up and down in them with great force, often making blow holes. 

 The fringing coral reef is in some places overhanging, and at such 

 places I could see down through the clear blue water of the channel 

 for more than 50 feet underneath the margin of the reef. 



