However, they were very well conducted, and we always spent a pleasant
night, rose at daybreak, bathed in the surf, or in the lagoon, and after
an early breakfast returned to the village, or had some more fishing. It
was a delightful life.

My canoe was so light that it could easily be carried by one person from
the open shed where it was kept, and in a few minutes after leaving
my house I would be afloat, paddling slowly over the smooth water, and
looking over the side for the mullet. In the Nanomea, Nui, and Nukufetau
Lagoons the largest but scarcest variety are of a purple-grey, with fins
(dorsal and abdominal) and mouth and gill-plates tipped with yellow;
others again are purple-grey with dull roddish markings. This kind, with
those of an all bright yellow colour throughout, are the most valued,
though, as I have said, the whole family are prized for their delicacy
of flavour.

As soon as I caught sight of one or more of the sought-for fish, I would
cease paddling, and bait my hook; and first carefully looking to see
if there were any predatory leather-jackets or many-coloured wrasse in
sight, would lower away, the hook soon touching the bottom, as I always
used a small sinker of coral stone. This was necessary only because of
the number of other fish about--bass, trevally, and greedy sea-pike,
with teeth like needles and as hungry as sharks. In the vicinity of the
reef, or about the isolated coral boulders, or "mushrooms" as we called
them, these fish were a great annoyance to me, though my native
friends liked them well enough, especially the large, gorgeously-hued
"leather-jackets," to which they have given the very appropriate name
of _isuumu moana_--the sea-rat--for they have a great trick of quietly
biting a baited line a few inches above the hook. _Apropos_ of the
"sea-rat," I may mention that their four closely-set and humanlike teeth
are so thick that they will often crush an ordinary hook as if it were
made of glass, and as their mouths are exceedingly small, and many are
heavy, powerful fishes, they cause havoc with ordinary tackle. But a
fellow-trader and myself devised a very short, stout hook (1 1/2 inch of
shank) with a barbless curve well turned in towards the shank; these
we bent on to a length of fine steel wire seizing. They proved just the
ideal hook for the larger kind of sea-rat, which run up to 10 lb., and
the natives were so greatly taken with the device that, whenever a ship
touched at the