ed to describe that extraordinary
nocturnal-feeding fish, the _palu_, and the manner of its capture by
the Malayo-Polynesian islanders of the Equatorial Pacific, and in the
present article I shall try to convey to my readers an idea of deep-sea
fishing in the South Seas generally. When I was living on the little
island of Nanomaga (one of the Ellice Group, situated about 600 miles to
the north-west of Samoa), as the one resident trader, I found myself
in--if I may use the term--a marine paradise, as far as fishing went.
The natives were one and all expert fishermen, extremely jealous of
their reputation of being not only the best and most skilful men in
Polynesia in the handling of their frail canoes in a heavy surf, but
also of being deep-learned in the lore of deep-sea fishing.

My arrival at the island caused no little commotion among the young
bloods, each of whose chances of gaining the girl of his heart, and
being united to her by the local Samoan missionary teacher, depended in
a great measure upon his ability to provide sustenance for her from the
sea; for Nanomaga, like the rest of the Ellice Group, is but little more
than a richly-verdured sandbank, based upon a foundation of coral, and
yielding nothing to its people but coconuts and a coarse species of
taro, called puraka. The inhabitants, in their low-lying atolls, possess
no running streams, no fertile soil, in which, as in the mountainous
isles of Polynesia, the breadfruit, the yam, and the sweet potato grow
and flourish side by side with such rich and luscious fruits as the
orange and banana, and pineapple--they have but the beneficent coconut
and the evergiving sea to supply their needs. And the sea is kind to
them, as Nature meant it to be to her own children.

The native missionary at Nanomaga was a Samoan. He was intended by
nature to be a warrior, a leader of men; or--and no higher praise can I
give to his dauntless courage--a boat-header on a sperm whaler. Strong
of arm and quick of eye, he was the very man to either throw the harpoon
or deal the death-giving thrust or the lance to the monarch of the ocean
world; but fate or circumstance had made him a missionary instead. He
was a fairly good missionary, but a better fisherman.

Three miles from Nanomaga is a submerged reef, marked on the chart as
the Grand Coral Reef, but known to the natives as Tia Kau, "the reef."
It is in reality a vast mountain of coral, whose bases lie two hundred
fathoms de