9 
Ae.'tv.‘<p 
strong winds and squalls attended to Tikahau aad 
no doubt hastened our progress. The atoll was sighted shortly after 
noon, but another two hours elapsed while we skirted the reef, before 
^e enter^^J^r^heia'Ka Pass on the western side of the atoll. Once within 
th^lagoon v/e turned south and headed for the anchorage marked on our 
several 
chart as lying on the lagoon side of Matiti islet, one of 
the reef of 
studding this atoll. Just within the entrance we spied an intriguing 
patch of coral, a micro-atoll Jack called it-^— an atoll within 
atoll. 
had come a long way to sample the fauna of a South Pacific 
of r re S 
-tiwar' t ed/by the relativi 
coral reef, and were not to be 
relative lateness of 
the hour. No sooner 'was the anchor dov/n than all hands piled into 
the dingily ?fith their collecting gear to have a go at it. So rich 
was our haul of marine life of all kinds ‘that we spent also the 
next day, forenoon and afternoon, collecting along the lagoon and 
seaward shores of Matiti islet and it^js outer reef. The effort 
^eldecA^ 
w more than SOO crustaceans - shrimps, crabs, hermit crabs, and a 
stomatopod or two, several hundred mollusks, more than SO worms of 
several species, a few echinoderms, holothurians , and brittle stars, 
and a number of small fish that had taken refuge in interstices 
of 
.ia the coral 
Though wanting to try our luck at fish poisoning, ?fe hesitated 
putting out rotenone because the South Pacific islandrrs 
s e cur much of their food, and in many cases earn:^^ 
their living, by fishing. To settle the question. Captain Temarii 
sent Tautu ashore to sound out the chief of the village 
near the pass. 
