t recovered.

Only a few years ago an old and valued American friend of mine--an
ex-ship captain settled in the Gilbert Islands in the North
Pacific--became annoyed at what he deemed to be the excessive prices the
natives charged for fish. The "excessive price," I may mention, meant
that he was asked a half-dollar for a basket of fish weighing, say,
fifty or sixty pounds. A half-a-dollar is equal to an English florin;
but no coin was handed over--four sticks ot tobacco costing the trader
about ten cents, was the equivalent. So my friend decided to show the
natives that he could do without them as far as his fish supply went.
He bought a box of dynamite, with fuse and caps, from a German trading
schooner, and at once set to work, blowing off his right hand within
twenty-four hours, through using too short a fuse.

That wretched box of dynamite proved a curse to the island. The natives,
despite my friend's accident, bought every cartridge from him, singly or
in lots, and they then began to enjoy themselves. Every hour of the
day for many weeks afterwards the sullen thud of the explosive could be
heard from all parts of the lagoon, followed by applauding shouts. Vast
numbers of fish were blown to pieces, for no native would ever think of
dividing a cartridge into half a dozen portions and using only one at a
time; the entire 6-oz. cartridge was used, and sometimes so short were
the fuses, that explosions would take place on the surface, to the
delight of the children, who said, "it was as good to hear as the
cannons of a man-of-war." In the short space of eight weeks there were
five serious accidents, two of which ended fatally. I was thankful when
the last charge had been exploded, and although the natives begged me to
import a fresh supply, I always declined--not on their account only, but
because of the wanton destruction of fish involved.

One day I decided to try and ascertain if _oap_ would affect fish by
being swallowed. I prepared twenty or thirty small balls of the plant,
wrapped each one up carefully in thin strips of fish flesh, so as to
thoroughly conceal the contents, and took them out to the "turtle dock."
The dock, although it was a safe enclosure for turtle, yet had many
small passages through the coral rock which permitted the ingress and
exit of moderately-sized fish, particularly a variety of black and
red-spotted rock-cod.

Throwing in the balls, one by one, I watched. Three of them were at once
swa