NATIVE FISHING WEIRS. 181 



to the south side of the island, to look at a water- 

 hole which had heen seen there. Duppa accompa- 

 nied us, and took us first to a small hole, with a 

 little trickle of water, about half a mile south of 

 Keriam. He then left us, and we proceeded. 



The south side of the island is by far the finest. 

 It has beautiful grassy slopes, from the woody 

 summit of the hill down to the belt of wood along 

 the shore. The coast is indented by sandy coves, 

 separated by little rocky headlands, and in each 

 cove is a small group of huts under the shade of a 

 grove of cocoa-nut trees. Several very fine canoes 

 were hauled up on these sand-beaches near each 

 group of huts. Sandy flats, dry at low water, stretch 

 out two or three hundred yards from the beach, 

 covered with native weirs for catching fish. These 

 are walls of loose stone, about three feet high, 

 formed in curves and semicircles along the sand- 

 flats, each having a radius of one or two hundred 

 yards. They are completely covered at high water, 

 but when^the tide falls, (its range being about ten 

 feet,) many fish are left within these enclosed spaces, 

 or, together with crabs and other sea creatures, 

 caught in the interstices of the stones. Outside 

 this belt of sand-flats is another of coral reef of irre- 

 gular width. Towards the south-east both coral 

 reefs and sand-flats stretch out for miles, with many 

 narrow deep channels and holes between them. 

 Here and there along the shore, both on the beach 

 and out on the sand-flats, were erected tall bamboo 



