SEA AND RIVER FISH. 
75 
natives call them oua , a word which also signifies to 
spring or jump. Here, also, are seen a great num¬ 
ber of the ray species, from the large unsightly 
diabolus, to the smallest kind, and a great variety 
of the medusa, or cuttle-fish. The fleet, beautiful, 
and sportive dolphin, and the anomalous creature 
called the flying-fish, that pursues its way alter¬ 
nately through the water and the air, and seems the 
uniting link between the feathered and the finny 
tribes. The natives call it marara. The totara, 
or hedge-hog fish, is also found among their reefs. 
The operu, scomber scomber of Linneus, resort 
to their coasts in large shoals, at stated seasons of 
the year, and are taken in great numbers by the 
people. 
The islanders are usually expert fishermen, and 
fish is a principal means of support for those who 
reside near the shore. The albicore, bonito, ray, 
swordfish and shark, the porpoise and the dolphin, 
are among the larger sea-fish that are eaten by 
them; in addition to which, they have an almost 
endless variety of rock-fish, which are remarkably 
sweet and good. 
In the rivers they find prawns and eels, and in 
their lakes, where there is an opening to the sea, 
multitudes of excellent fish are always found; 
among others is a salmon, which, at certain seasons 
of the year, is taken in great abundance. It exactly 
resembles the northern salmon in size, shape, and 
structure, but the flesh is much whiter than that of 
the salmon of Europe, or of those taken on the north¬ 
ern coasts of America; the taste is also the same, 
excepting that the Tahitian salmon is rather drier 
than the other. In the sand they find muscles 
and cockles, and on the coral reefs a great variety of 
shell-fish; among which, the principal are crabs, 
