12 
Cl 

gpn± ay-.in the lagoorA'^ome of us returned/the next morning (a 
ers made several seine 
to the outer reef. 
and dredge hauls^^n t he 3ag o^ side of the islet before 
/C BQTTt7 > 
returnrajittr^he old/anchorage in mid-afternoon. 
night traps w ere set out in the hope of 
getting rats for Dr. David Johnson, the National Museum’s 
mammalogist , v/ho is especially interested in their distribution 
over the world. The clav7s/biae3C"~the 'traps 
^iXcL l?€€#i 
indicated only too well tiiat the land crabs more i ore-handed 
e>^t 
tiian the rodents. 4^efore returning to the ’’liareva” in the ainghy 
Tautu, Dr. ReMer, and I ranged the 
outer reef v/ith flashlights. Tautu made the best haul, a small 
robber or coconut crab, 3/rlcing along the lagoon shore. It was 
the first of several we brought back to the ji^useum, and the first 
I had ever seen captured alive. 
We did not get at our fish poisoning until the follov/ing 
morning 
rm 
a e 
was more successful than anticipated, and 
resulted in the largest and most varied fish collection made at 
any one station in the course of the expedition. Our derris root, 
or rotenon^ as the p 07 /dered form is Itno^wn, moistened v;ith sea water 
was pressed into compact cakeS(£> These were placed in suitable 
pockets in the reef before breakfast, and given about an hour^^ 
"soak”. In that time the slowly diffusing poisonous extract of the 
derris root iiad paralyzed the respiratory, apparatus of all fish 
coming within range of its lethal concentration. These were for 
