396 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
About three p. m. we reached Owawarua, and 
passed on to Hihiu, where we had an opportunity 
of speaking to a small party of natives. 
In these villages we saw numbers of canoes and 
many large fishing-nets, which are generally made 
with a native kind of flax, very strong and durable, 
but produced by a plant very different from the 
'phormium tenax , which furnishes the flax of New 
Zealand, and bearing a nearer resemblance to the 
plant used by the natives of the Society Islands, 
called roa, the urtica argentea , or candicans , of 
Parkinson. In taking fish out at sea, they com¬ 
monly make use of a net, of which they have many 
kinds, some very large, others mere hand-nets; 
they occasionally employ the hook and line, but 
never use the spear or dart, which is a favourite 
weapon with the southern islanders. 
Quantities of fish were spread out in the sun to 
dry, in several places, and the inhabitants of the 
northern shores seem better supplied with this 
article than those of any other part of the island. 
The shores of Hawaii are by no means so well 
stocked with fish as those of the Society Islands. 
The industry of the Hawaiians in a great degree 
makes up the deficiency, for they have numerous 
small lakes and ponds, frequently artificial, wherein 
they breed fish of various kinds, and in tolerable 
abundance. 
It was about seven o’clock in the evening when 
we sailed from Hihiu, in a single canoe. The 
land-breeze was light, but the canoe went at a 
tolerably rapid rate, and about eleven at night we 
reached Towaihae, where we were kindly received 
by Mr. Young. By him we were informed that 
Messrs. Bishop and Goodrich had arrived at To¬ 
waihae on the preceding Tuesday, and had gone 
