part of the Caroline archipelagoes. The Gilbert
Islanders call it _te ika ne peka_--a name that cannot well be
translated into bald English, though there is a very lucid Latin
equivalent.

In 1882 I took passage from the Island of Nukufetau in the Ellice Group
for the Caroline Islands. The vessel was a fine brigantine of 160 tons,
and was named the _Orwell_. She was, unfortunately, commanded by an
incompetent, obstinate, self-willed man, who, though a good seaman, had
no meteorological knowledge and succeeded in losing the ship, when lying
at anchor, on Peru Island, in the Gilbert Group, ten days after leaving
Nukufetau, simply through disregarding the local trader's advice to put
to sea. Disastrous as was the incident to me, for I lost trade goods and
personal effects to the value of over a thousand pounds, and came ashore
with what I stood in--to wit, a pyjama suit--and a bag of Chili dollars,
I had reason to afterwards congratulate myself from a fisherman's point
of view.

Living on the island was a Swiss, Frank Voliero, whom I have before
mentioned. He was an ardent deep-sea fisherman, and was on that account
highly respected by the natives, who otherwise did not care for him, as
he was of an exceedingly quarrelsome disposition. He was an expert
_palu_ man, and he and I therefore quickly made Island _bruderschaft_.
During the three months I remained on Peru we had many fishing trips,
and caught not less than fifty _palu_. The largest of these was
evidently a patriarch, for although he was in rather poor condition he
weighed 136 lbs. and was 6 feet 10 inches in length. Another, hooked at
a depth of eighty-five fathoms, was only 5 feet 2 inches, and weighed
129 lbs. Its stomach contained a small octopus with curiously stunted
tentacles, almost as thick at the tips as they were at the base, but in
all other respects similar to those found in shallow water upon the
reefs and in the lagoon.

Both Voliero and myself tried many kinds of bait for _palu,_ believing
that the native theory that the fish would only take flying-fish was
wrong. We found that on Peru, any elongated fish, such as gars, silvery
mullet, or young bonito, were acceptable, and that the tentacle of an
octopus, after the outer skin was removed, answered just as well. Yet
further southward among the Pacific Isles, flying-fish is the only bait
they will take! Evidently, therefore, the _palu_, at the great depths in
which it lives, is attracted by a brig