MBUA BAY AND MUTHUATA. 233 



fuel is purchased from the chiefs, who agree to furnish a certain 

 quantity for a stipulated compensation. As much as twenty cords 

 are sometimes bought for a single musket. In carrying on the 

 drying, it is important that the doors be kept shut while the fires 

 are burning. Much also depends upon the location of the house, 

 whose length should be at right-angles to the course of the prevailing 

 winds. The batters also should be nearest to the lee-side of the 

 house. 



Before beginning the fishery, the services of some chief are secured, 

 who undertakes to cause the house to be built, and sets his dependants 

 at work to fish the biche de mar. The price is usually a whale's 

 tooth for a hogshead of the animals, just as they are taken on the reef. 

 It is also bought with muskets, powder, balls, vermilion, paint, axes, 

 hatchets, beads, knives, scissors, chisels, plane-irons, gouges, fish- 

 hooks, small glasses, flints, cotton cloths, chests, trunks, &c. Of 

 beads, in assorted colours, the blue are preferred, and cotton cloth 

 of the same colour is most in demand. For one musket, a cask con- 

 taining from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and sixty gallons, 

 has been filled ten times. When the animals are brought on shore, 

 they are measured into bins, where they remain until the next day. 



These bins are formed by digging a trench in the ground, about 

 two feet in depth, and working up the sides with cocoa-nut. logs until 

 they are large enough to contain forty or fifty hogsheads. If the 

 fishery is successful, two of these may be needed. 



Near the bins are placed the trade-house and trade-stand. In the 

 first the articles with which the fish is purchased are kept, and in the 

 second, the officer in charge of them sits, attended by a trusty and 

 watchful seaman. The stand is elevated, so that the persons in it may 

 have an opportunity of seeing all that is taking place around them. 

 All the fish are thrown into the bin before they are paid for. 



In these bins the fish undergo the operations of draining and purg- 

 ing, or ejecting their entrails. These, in some of the species, resemble 

 pills, in others look like worms, and are as long as the animals them- 

 selves. 



The larger kinds are then cut along the belly for a length of three 

 or four inches, which makes them cure more rapidly, but care must 

 be taken to avoid cutting too deep, as this would cause the fish to 

 spread open, which would diminish its value in the market. 



When taken out of the bins and cut, the fish are thrown into the 

 boilers, which are large pots, of which each establishment has five or 



vol. in. 59 



