No. 444] 



PALOLO WORM OF SAMOA. 



mysterious worm. I arrived at Apia on October 20 and was 

 fortunate in meeting Dr. Kramer who placed at my disposal the 



the reef between Samatau and Falelatai my native friends took 

 me to a shallow bay called Fagaiofu about two miles cast of our 

 village. The bay lies between two small promontories and is 

 about one quarter of a mile wide, the distance from the shore to 

 the edge of the fringing reef, which fills the bay, is not more 

 than 150 meters. The place is so shallow that at low tide one 

 can wade from the shore to the edge of the reef. The reef plat- 

 form, which is composed chiefly of dead coral and honeycombed 

 reef rock, is interrupted by two narrow deep! channels or passages. 



The reef at Fagaiofu proved to be literally alive with "Palolo." 

 They were discovered by prising off, with a crowbar, masses of 

 the rock at the edges of the channels. They could be seen 

 dangling from the freshly exposed surfaces and wriggling free 

 into the deeper water of the channel to be carried seaward by 

 the retreating tide, to the astonishment of my natives who had 

 never seen the " Palolo " before the time appointed for its appear- 

 ance — this was three days before. Owing to the great length 



with the cavities of the honeycomb rock, the operation of freeing 

 unbroken specimens is a delicate one. With the aid of chisels 

 and forceps I succeeded with great difficulty in obtaining, in 

 addition to other material, three worms complete from head to 



My experiences confirm the discoveries of Kramer and Fried- 



