28 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Hawaiian Fishes at the Panama Pacific Exposition 
AWAITS pavilion at the Pana¬ 
ma-Pacific International Expo¬ 
sition is in readiness to ac¬ 
commodate the “rainbow” 
ifishes that are to be brought 
from Honolulu by the liner 
Matsonia, and the beautiful ex¬ 
hibit will be installed by Mr. 
Fred A. Potter, superintendent of that city’s 
world-famous aquarium, who has spent six 
months collecting the various specimens and ar¬ 
ranging for their transportation and care while 
on show. 
That has not been a trifling task, for the 
fishes are delicate as well as eye-rav¬ 
ishing, and in order to keep them in 
good form, while crossing the Pacific, 
constant attention will be necessary 
Aboard the Matsonia, a number of 
galvanized-iron tanks, especially de¬ 
signed for the purpose, will contain 
water incessantly undergoing change 
and maintained at a temperature of 
seventy-two degrees; and for the car¬ 
nivorous fishes, the food to which 
they have been accustomed—mostly 
worms and small Crustacea—must be 
doled out in specified quantity and at 
regular intervals, while their vegeta¬ 
rian neighbors may consume all the 
seaweed they desire. At all times an 
attendant will be ready to segregate 
the sick or remove the dead and see 
to it that the water does not cool or 
the food supply cease. 
Experience has taught Mr. Potter 
that too much vigilance cannot be 
exercised while his charges are en 
route, because the first time he at¬ 
tempted to transfer a similar exhibit 
from Honolulu to San Francisco, 
during the Midwinter Fair in the 
latter city, about twenty years ago, every fish was 
dead before he entered the Golden Gate. Since 
then, however, he succeeded in depositing 130 
live fish at the Seattle exposition, where they 
flourished until the fair was over, and then were 
presented to the University of the state of Wash¬ 
ington, where their bodies now occupy bottles. His 
success was repeated three years ago, when a 
tank, containing “painted” fish was surrounded by 
tables, at a banquet given by the Hawaiian Sugar 
Refining Company in the Bohemian Club of San 
Francisco. Those specimens are now preserved 
by the University of California. 
Nor will vigilant care relax after the coming 
consignment has been divided among the ten big 
glass-fronted exhibition tanks provided for it at 
the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Water for the re¬ 
ceptacles will be brought from about twenty-five 
miles beyond the Golden Gate by a steamship spe¬ 
cially equipped for that service, and the pure aqua 
thus secured is to be kept stored in sufficient quan¬ 
tity to maintain a constant flow in the exhibition 
tanks. The food supply will be brought from 
Honolulu. 
To describe in detail the marvelous variety of 
By James C. Crawford. 
color and form of the seventy five different kinds 
of fish, that Mr. Potter has collected for this ex¬ 
hibit, would simply be impossible, for in shape 
they are an aggregation of eccentricities and their 
markings are the despair of artists who have tried 
to transfer them to canvas. All the hues of the 
rainbow, with some shades exclusively their own, 
are found on these piscatory freaks. 
There, for example, is the hinalea, nick-named 
the ‘bird fish,” because of the beak-like forma¬ 
tion of its mouth and the dominance of peacock- 
blue in its coloring. Also may be mentioned the 
alaihi, or “squirrel fish,”, whose eyes are just as 
disproportionate as those of the animal it is nick¬ 
named after. Admiring tourists have called it 
the “candy fish,” on account of the vari-colored 
stripes of its body resembling those of a candy 
stick. Of the kapuhili, or “butterfly fish,” there 
are twelve varieties, in coloring, the prettiest of 
them having a yellow ground with red, blue, black, 
white and gray markings. It is of the perch fam¬ 
ily, with back armor that bristles like a row of 
bayonets. 
But the queerest-acting fish of the lot is the 
oakupai, a big fellow, shaped like a cod and 
splashed with a dozen different hues, all glaring¬ 
ly brilliant. He has a sturdy ventral fin, and it is 
his wont to Utilize it as a prop while he perches, 
so to speak, upon a coral rock and stares straight 
ahead of him with lusterless eyes that protrude 
like hat-pegs. He has been known to pose thus 
from morning until night, without apparent mo¬ 
tion of any member, and th£ sobriquets, thus earn¬ 
ed by him, are numerous, varied and more or 
less apt, most of them signifying laziness. When 
William Jennings Bryan visited the Honolulu 
aquarium, before he became Secretary of State, 
he exchanged stares with an oakupai until a 
member of the party suggested that they move on 
to the next tank.. “Wait awhile,” Mr. Bryan re¬ 
sponded, “until this fellow has collected his 
thoughts and starts to speak.” Since then the 
oakupai has been usually introduced as “the slow- 
witted orator.” 
Another funny-behaving fish is the lae-nihi, that 
looks like a blunt nosed dirigible, painted light 
blue and bespattered with crimson and yellow. 
Atop of his head is a single fin that lies flat un¬ 
til he catches somebody looking at him, when it 
sharply rises and remains ereet, like an interro¬ 
gation mark, while his saucer-like eyes fairly 
blaze mingled resentment and inquiry. He is a 
bashful chap, but irascible when roused. 
With brilliant purple spots all over 
his crimson body, and a yellow tail, 
the a'kilolo is also afflicted with shy¬ 
ness, for when he detects a human 
eye leveled at him, he burrows into 
the sand like a frightened rabbit un¬ 
til every bit of him is covered. Mr. 
Potter says the akilolo spends his 
nights completely immersed in the 
sand, and seems to experience no dif¬ 
ficulty in breathing there with as 
much freedom as if he were in clear 
water. His penchant for burrowing, 
has earned for him the side-title of 
“rat fish,” and the shape of his head 
strengthens the aptness of the nick¬ 
name. 
Along the broad dappled sides of 
of the awela are double rows of 
square blueAiordered indentations, 
and because of them he i = mostly al¬ 
luded to as the “harmonica fish.” He 
is very pretty in form and coloring, 
the rich yellow and deep red of his 
'body markings being relieved by ul¬ 
tra-marine fins and tail tips. 
With a snout like a woodpecker, 
the little kikakapu bores into the coral 
in quest of food, and is ever the busiest fish of 
the collection. He is mostly yellow and black with 
a blue tail, and heavily armored with spikes the 
entire length of his back. As he ignores all food, 
but that which he excavates for himself, neither 
book or net could capture him, so Mr. Potter 
caught him by means of a trap. 
Most curiously formed and marked of all the 
Hawaiian fish is the kala. He looks like an inflat¬ 
ed bladder with a forked tail attached, the two 
prongs of the fork streaming behind him to a 
length of several feet. His dorsal fin is alternate¬ 
ly striped and barred with black, white, yellow 
and blue, and his ventral fin is dazzling yellow. 
The body is splashed a variety of delicate shades. 
There is a “Moorish idol” fish that eclipses all 
the others in brilliancy, with black and yellow 
bands around the body and a dorsal fin tapering 
into a long plume that is several times the length 
of its owner. 
Several varieties of “trigger fish” are so called 
because their dorsal fin can only be lowered by 
pressing a small protuberance behind it. And there 
are also several varieties of “convict fish,” with 
(Continued on page 64.) 
Half Dome, Court of the Four Seasons at the Panama-Pacific International 
Exposition at San Francisco. To the Left a Glimpse of the Top of 
the Tower of Jewels is Seen. The Height of This Structure is 
432 ft., and the Sphere Surmounting it is 117 ft. in Diameter. 
