I have bean on reefs and shoals in the Caribbean with a light 
at night, but never before had I seen anything remotely approaching 
the vast expanse of this barrier reef. There may be other mid- 
Pacific reefs that equal or suitpass it. In the Atlantic there are 
some suectacular reefs, but nothing so v/ide and impressive as the 
stretch of reef we travelled on t hat anight p i.'.i: 1 Hot until 
recently did I learn that this Bora Bora reef had elicited rauch 
the same comment, thirty years before our visit, from William 
Morris Davis: "The barrier reef of Borabora is exceptional in the 
breadth of its flat, Vihich is up to a mile wide” (The Coral Reef 
Problem, iimerican Geographical Society, 1928, p. 303). 
As observed in similar excursions in other parts oftthe 
world, the eyes of crustaceans brilliantly reflect the light from 
t\ 
lantern, jCashlight, or torch. Their eyes shine as though they 
At night 
the lobsters come foraging over the reef flat from their refuges 
.4 
nd hide-aways on both sides of the reef ; from which side they 
come in greater numb e r s la goon or sea-— i have not ascertained 
Our^was a fair liaul ol^lobsters of no great size. The 
/V ^ SfG»vx , 
less tlian half -grown specimens we gatl^ed indicate that they 
cl 
re too intensively fished. However, with the proverbial luck 
of an amateur, I got the largest one 
about 13.5 
inches long fi’om fore-edge of carapace, or dorsal shield, to hind 
margin of telson, or end of tail. Indeed, the fishermen with us, 
and others later in Vaitape, remarked that lobsters of that size 
were very seldom taken, and that they had not seen one as large 
