FOHESI: AND StftSlAMf 
rrrTiT-iiVfi 
fattiily god. Long years ago in the village of Luatuanuu, ' 
which we have just left behind us, there was a young 
■ chief named Utu, and he was the handsomest young man 
0I all Samoa. The elders of his family sought to have 
him marry the chief taupou girl of the Vaimaunga, but 
' he did not want to. Over here beyond, where you can 
just see to wmdward the smoke from the ovens, there 
was a very handsome girl in Solosolo named U, but she 
was not a taupou, for her family was but slight. On his 
way through the bush in the great pigeon hunting of his 
town Utu grew to know the girl and chose her for his 
wife. She was not unwilling, for you know what our 
Samoan girls are; the favor of a handsome chief is a 
thing they cannot resist — indeed, they never try to re- 
sist. So CJ left Solosolo and came along the mountain 
path and by the sea to Luatuanuu and went to the house 
of Utu to be his wife. But the elders of Luatuanuu would 
not have her. They drove her out of the town while 
Utu was gone a-fishing, and they bade her return to her 
own town and tell the chiefs of Solosolo, Leota Toomata 
and Leota Seiuli and Leota Leuluaialii, that not even 
their daughters in Solosolo were worthy to mate with 
common men in Luatuanuu. So she went homeward, 
always looking out to sea if perchance she might espy 
the canoe in which Utu had gone out for bonito, in hope 
that she could hail him and save her from this disgrace. 
But when she passed the last of the lands of Luatuanuu 
and reached the first of the lands of Solosolo, right at 
this spot, she met the aitu of the Leota family, who 
asked her why she wept. This was at that time a flat 
cape, nothing but the bush coming down to the sea, noth- 
ing to distinguish it from the rest of the slope. But 
Leota's god knew the place well. So she told the god 
what indignity had been put upon the three Leotas by 
the chiefs and elders of Luatuanuu. But the god had 
no mercy; they were devils, these old heathen gods of 
Sa moa, and he forbade her to carry such a message to 
Anoamaa and the village green of Solosolo, and he turned 
her into the broad rock you see on the hillside just 
behind us and tnat rock to this day is U, the maiden 
who was forbiddv-n to be the wife of the chief Luatuanuu. 
But that evening, as Utu came back from sea with his 
canoe filled with bonito, for he was a most expert fish- 
erman, he steered close in shoreward to avoid the perils 
of the Fale Ai;:il. As he was running close along the 
shore he heard the voice of U calling to him to help 
her. Then he saw her in the stone, and even to-day, if 
any man shouM hear her cry he would be able to see 
her also. Then he steered up this gap in the reef and the 
sea caught him Ejd broke his canoe on the shore. Then 
the god of hhi lamily had pity on his sad plight and 
turned him inf'O this ■ hillock, where he remains forever 
close to his v.'i,« U. Just as he was turned into stone he 
was weeping, and here you see his tears flowing from 
what was his head and trickling down the slope into the 
sea. Since that time the Samoans have named the point 
after the youag cnief of Luatuanuu and his Solosolo 
wife whom the elders rejected, and call the spot Utu and 
U, which is the meaning in our speech of Utumau. But 
the fish which v»rcre in his canoe have remained in this 
gap toward the sea, and it is a rich place to catch them." 
The latter part of the story gave me an idea.. From 
the elevation on which I sat it was easy to see the fish 
m the reef pools swimming in well ordered schools, and 
now and then to espy larger fish swimming into the very 
breakers m tlie gap. There was no way of getting at 
them with "hook and line, for the sea was too heavy. 
But it seemed feasible to shoot them from the height, and 
the Samoans are so much at home in the water that I 
had no doubt they would be able to land the catch. I 
am by no means sure that the word catch is applicable 
to fish that are shot, but in default of a better term it 
must stand. On the delusive theory that I might meet 
one of the wild bulls that are said to inhabit the Upolu 
mountams I had carried my rifle and a bandolier of 
cartridges. Greatly to his own satisfaction Talolo had 
been allowed to carry my "shoot gun," but in a state 
of safe emptiness, a reasonable precaution, since I knew 
he would be behind me, and Tanoa had charge of the 
loaded shells. My first shot at the fish was essayed with 
the shotgun, but I found that the charge was too light 
and the shot scattered too widely to .do more than stir 
up a few bubbles on the water. This weapon, accord- 
ingly, I turned over to Talolo with haU" a dozen shells 
and sent him out to get a few of the pigeons which he 
professed to hear on the mountain slope. As the berries 
were not yet ripe at the shore, I knew that his hunt 
W'ould be futile. When he came back empty handed with 
the report of consecutive misses I was not at all surprised 
to find that the primers had not been exploded proof 
conclusive that Talolo had prepared himself to make his 
small contribution of powder to the war stock of Vaiala. 
The rifle gave better results. Of course I recognized 
that it would be impossible to actually touch a single 
fish with the bullet through 3 or 4 inches of water. But 
I had an idea that the shock of impact would serve to 
stun all the fish for several feet around. This proved 
well tounded. Every shot into a pool where there was 
seen a school of fish sent most of them white side up to 
the surface. Here the rush of the waves sent them shore- 
\vard and my boys ran out and caught them before the 
effect of the shock had passed ofif. This was all very 
easy when it was a case of shooting at schools of small 
hsh m the somewhat sheltered pools. But the larger 
fish m the gap attracted me. Whether they were really 
the descendants of the mythical fish that Utu lost when 
he was turned to stone and therefore fe-lt it obligatory to 
wait about until his revival I will not venture to pro- 
nounce, but from my elevated perch it was easy to see 
really good-sized fish sporting just behind the crest of the 
last comber and narrowly escaping the rush of the sea 
that might well have smashed them against the rock 
Five times I tried to shoot these larger fish; three times 
my ritle bullet came close enough to stun them, as was 
proved by the immediate sight of their whites, and of 
the three my boys on the rocks below w^ere able to cap- 
ture two. one a fair-sized mullet and the other a young 
bonito. The third drifted almost to the shore and then 
recovered consciousness, with a derisive flip of its tail 
righted itself and dashed seaward into safety. The rec- 
ord of the two' that were taken was not preserved, for 
just about that time my Samoans became suddenly hun- 
gry. . They cleaned the fish and wrapped them in leaves 
and cooked them without delay. I had a chance at my 
share, but they were far too underdone to suit any but 
an island taste. 
When I examined these and the smaller fish I found 
but one mark on them, showing that they had been sim- 
ply stunned by the shock of the bullet striking the water, 
either one or both of the eyeballs being ruptured and in 
several instances forced out of the socket. 
Mention has been made before of the frequency with 
which the islanders are seriously hurt and maimed by the 
•use of cartridges of high explosives in fishing. All this 
sort of stuff is contraband by law, but the traders will 
sell It whenever they get a chance, and the Samoans 
have to suffer the loss of a few fingers or a whole arm 
as a result of the unsportsmanlike practice of dynamiting 
fish. • I 
The same objection might be raised against shooting 
fish with the rifle. But when one has tried it in the 
islands, when one has seen that it is practically a wing 
shot at the larger fish in the breakers, and that there is 
no wholesale destruction, but only a fair chance at a sin- 
gle fish, with no damage done in the case of a miss the 
practice is defensible as pure sport. 
Llewella Pierce Churchill. 
Down Among the Fishes. 
In the cool shadow of an abandoned scow that lay fast 
aground the bank with her battered bow half hidden in a 
pillo\v of ferns, an old bass was taking his ease of a June 
morning. It was just after his daintily chosen breakfast— 
the pick of the swimming and flying things around and 
above him— a silver-scaled, soft-finned minnow, a deli- 
cate little spotted frog and two or three gaudy flies most 
prized because hardest to catch. He was aristocrat of 
fishes, with the corners of his mouth reaching back no 
turther than the middle of his eyes, the slight jutting of 
his under jaw, the thin, fine scales of his bronze armor 
the nine sharp spines of the first dorsal— all betokening 
the blue blood of the small-mouthed bass. He was a fish 
of \yeight— a good 5 pounds— in his community, and a 
patriarch to whose opinions born of much experience most 
of the bass in the stream deferred, and often came to him 
tor advice and to listen to stories of adventure. 
Just now there were none of his kind hear him save 
his wife, who hovered about mid-stream, vigilantly guard- 
ing the bed where her eggs, fast glued to the fine gravel 
awaited hatching. If a water-logged twig or chip came 
tumbling along the bottom threatening to pollute the 
sacred precincts, she seized it before it found lodgment 
and set it adrift at a safe distance down stream If 
any perch, siinfish or ugly bullhead imprudentiv ventured 
nearer than suited her ladyship, she would rush at them 
with a short but terribly menacing rush that sent them 
scurrymg far out of sight. But when a sucker came root- 
ing along the bottom with his ridiculous looking snout, he 
was met by a more furious and persistent charge that 
drove him well out of the neighborhood; for well she 
knew what destruction that toothless mouth meant to 
eggs While she was absent in the chase, her lord who 
all the while was holding his place against the current 
with a slight motion of his tail, moved a little out stream 
and kept guard. It needed but a turning of his grim 
front toward the small fry to send them off in swift re- 
treat; but the great spotted pickerel that came scullincr 
leisurely upstream, glaring wickedly about "in supreme in- 
ditterence to his many enemies (and friends he had not) 
was not to be scared by any such slight demonstrations' 
bott-finned though he was, the cavernous mouth and its 
glistening rows of teeth, sharp as daggers, were not to be 
despised; and really there was no need for quarreling 
witii him now, for he was not notorious as a devourer of 
spawn. But an insatiate destroyer of young fish even to 
cannibalism, his presence was intolerable to all parents 
of fishes. 
"May I ask you to pass on if you're going up sti'eara?" 
said the bass, fiercely regarding his big enemy. 
• Spcsen I hain't goin' tu? If it's vour mis'able aigs 
youre so scared on, don"t worry; I don't want era; an' 
i m goin when I git ready." 
"Perhaps so," said the bass, who just then saw madame 
returning, and made a signal, whereupon she boldly faced 
the enemy. While she thus engaged his attention, her 
lord set the spines of his back fin and made a furious 
charge, raking the pickerel's bellv till the scales rattled 
and blood flowed out between them. So swift and unex- 
pected the charge in the manner of delivery, that the great 
fish, twice the size of both assailants, turned and°fled 
down the river. Congratulating themselves upon their 
easily won victory, they resumed their places, she over 
the bed, he under the scow, whence he began a watch 
for something to satisfy his appetite, which recent exer- 
cise had sharpened. Nothing appeared but a companv of 
tour well-grown bass on their way to the spawning ground 
further up the river. In whatever haste they might be 
they must need wait on the patriarch for advice, which 
he was willing enough to impart, though they harrowed 
his feelings with an account of a feast of minnows they 
enjoyed in a shallow near the lake. 
"Never mind," said he, cheerfully; "there'll be some- 
thing along by and by. Why do you go up into the 
shallow water ?" 
A pert young bass took it upon himself to answer "Oh 
we want swift, well-aerated water. It's healthier than this 
sluggish stuff, and food is plentier. Besides that, we have 
a better chance to look out and see the worid in shallow 
water. 
"Yes, and the world has the same chance to see you" 
the patriarch said. "You cannot make your beds no'r get 
yourselves out of sight of every man and bov who passes 
along the banks, as well as every mink that comes a-hunt- 
ing by land or water, and the fish hawks and king- 
fishers that cruise m the air above. Our bed is pretty 
much out of sight of all these ; they can't see me through 
the bottom of this old .scow; there is food enough to keep 
us fairly comfortable, and the water isn't bad. though it 
don t go tearing over .rocks and gravel. For me these 
advantages more than offset all you get up there, and I 
ought to know, for I've tried both places. I was hatched 
down here, and thought it too stupid for any fish but 
bowfins and billfish and bullheads and, eels, and those up- 
start cousins of ours, the big-mouths. 
"Yes; it is plenty good enough for the low-down 
tellows, tor all they take on such airs because oieq 
call 'em 'game fish.' The annoyance of their company is 
the objection to this part of the river. Well, as I was 
saying, I thought this no place for bass of the blue blood, 
and accordingly determined to select a more suitable home 
when I came of proper age. My parents warned me of the 
dangers that would surround, but I held to my determina- 
tion to go where the salmon used to in the old times 
when they were lords of the river as we are now, as I 
had heard from my great-great-grandfather, who was told 
by his, as related to him by his great-great-grandfather, 
who had it from those who lived in the days when red- 
men instead of white ruled all the land. Those were 
happy days for fish, for the redmen wanted no more than 
they could eat, and had small means of getting even so 
many. Their bone hooks and spears and bark nets 
weren't much compared with all the contrivances of white 
men. After a time one winter when we were all out in 
the deep water of the lake, I found a mate — not this 
lady, who is much younger than I," waving a pectoral fin 
toward madame, "but one of my own age. whom I lost 
long ago by a cruel death," he paused to wipe a watery 
eye with the upper fluke of his caudal, "and in the follow- 
ing May we came into the river and up through the dark 
water to the wrinkled rapids, clattering over beds of 
gravel. It was good to breathe this sparkling water and 
to see through it the overhanging trees, the green banks 
and the hillsides far beyond, distorted though they were 
into strange fantastic shapes, as seen through the rippled 
surface. There were plenty of soft-finned minnows, too, 
whereon to feast, and as kingfishers were the only enemies 
we had seen so far, we were well satisfied that we had de- 
cided wisely in choosing our new home. 
"We swam on and on, prospecting for a place that 
should exactly suit us to make our bed in. but being hard 
to please, came at last to a kind of fence of woven 
twine that reached quite across the stream, where it ran 
swift, deep and narrow for a few rods. This fence slanted 
up-stream from either end to the middle, where it came 
to a point, which was further extended by a contrivance 
that we did not then understand, though we learned it 
later to our cost. We swam the whole length along the 
top, which was kept at the surface by wooden floats, but 
could discover no way of passing but by leaping over. 
I was about to do this when my mate called to me to 
come and see what she had found. Tliis was a round 
passage at the angle of the fence, into which we went a 
little way to where it ended in a circular bag' that ap- 
parently gave us a free way up the river. Instead of 
this, it opened to a sort of chamber, forrhed of the same 
kind of stuff as the fence. It w^as crowded with fish of 
several kinds, all moving about in search of a way out, but 
apparently there w^as none. We thought we might at least 
go out where we came in, but strangely enough we could 
not find the place. My mate upbraided herself without 
stint for our being in such a bad bo.t, when, if my sug- 
gestion had been followed and we had used our peculiar 
gift, we would have leaped the barrier and gone safely on 
our way. I told her there was no use in crying over lost 
eggs, and the only thing for us was to lind'a way out of 
the scrape we were in. though to tell the truth I had little 
idea how it was to be done. What this strange contrivance 
was we didn't know, but guessed it was one of man's 
cunning devices for the destruction of fish, and if so, the 
sooner we were out of it, the better. 
"It Avas not an agreeable place to be in. apart from 
the confinement and the prospective danger, for the com- 
pany was not of the best. There was a big pickerel, a 
coarse, vulgar fellow who scared the .smaller fish nearly 
out of their scales and made very free with his betters. 
There was an abominable eel constantly wriggling about, 
impartially distributing his filthy slime to everything he 
touched, and there were several bullheads, mighty un- 
comfortable in close quarters with their sharp horns prick- 
ing j'our sides. . Then there were two or three goggle- 
eyed suckers, mighty harmless looking chaps, if you didn't 
know that their soft-lipped under-shutting mouths were 
made on purpose for sucking up spawn. There was a 
considerable number of hand.some perch, to say nothing 
of ourselves, to redeem the genial character of' the com- 
pany, yet it was plain to be seen that this part of the 
stream was not free from spawn-eaters, as well as other- 
wise unpleasant companions. But if there was any con- 
solation in the reflection, this was not likely to be of much 
consequence, as it would be the end of all things for us 
when the men came who had set this trap for us. 
" 'What did ye come up here for?' the pickerel asked, in 
a surly tone; but wishing to he on good terms with all 
fish in these last hours of life, I answered very civilly and 
told him our purpose. 
" 'Wal. I al'ays thought }-Du bass folks was a mess o' 
fools, a-fussin' so wi' your aigs,' he said with a sneer on 
his wicked long face. 'We dump our'n down anywheres 
on the ma'sh, and that's the end on't for us; but I 
reckon there's as many pickerel raised as the' is bass.' 
" 'Quite enough at any rate.' I said, at which he glared 
at me as if he would eat me but for the dangerous look 
of my back fin. which I felt willing enough to give him a 
taste of on the outside of his mouth. 
" 'We hang our eggs up on bushes, where they look 
very pretty, but the ducks, mud turtles and some' kinds 
of fish make us a lot of trouble,' said one of the oldest 
perch, speaking up quite modest and polite, 'but it's the 
way we were taught, and we don't know any other.' 
"At that up spoke the impudent black fellow, the bull- 
head, Ef ye wants ter hev an easy job a-takin' keer o' 
aigs,^ye jes' dig ye a hole in the bank an' drop yer aigs 
into 't, an' then back yerse'f in. wi' ver hade aout ; ef any- 
body comes a-foolin' 'raoun', jes sting him. Dat's de way 
I sarves 'em.' 
"The eel, who was a Canadian, said, with a cunning 
laugh. 'De bes' way was for nobody know de way how 
dey was Wy hees aig. Den somebodv can' fin' hees aig 
for spile 'em up. Dat de way wid heel. Nobody can' tol" 
you if de heel horned or if he hatch of hegg. One feller 
say he come off clam, nudder feller say he come off ling. 
Heel ant tol', somebody Can catch him, so he go safe ali 
de tam hole feller.' 
"Just then we felt the bank shaken by some one ap- 
proaching, and ourselves more shaken by fear when we 
saw a man slowly, slowly drawing nearer and car&fully 
scanning the water and searching it with a large hook at 
the end of a pole. This presently caught in our network 
cage, and fixing firmly into the end of it, he slipped it 
