Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1916-03-19
FISH
Of MANY HUES
Walter Hill Describes Won
derful Tropic Species
Found In South Seas: Ma
tives Subsist On Bananas
and Fish
BY WALTER HILL
Papete. February |

Papete, February Ii
Here is fish story-fishy hut
true. ! have seen green fish. gold fish
blue fish, purple fish. brown fish
yellow fish, speckled fish, and fish
striped like Il BARRIERS pole, red, white
| and blue; in fact fish in most every
color and every shade of color and
some of them novel not only in color
but in form. The other day a fish
| was seen about twelve inches long
beautiful blue with two horns of
| bright gold that projected them
selves out over the head and reached
| back beyond the tail-it was a beau
tifu sight sailing through the water
-prouder than a Phoenix girl dis
playing a new Easter hat,
There are lobster, clam. crawfish
! and. what | never saw before. sea
centipedes which they say are fine
eating-but | declind with thanks
when they were set before me. Four
| thousand feet up on one of the noun
tains is a lovely lake. In it are
cells twelve inches in diameter out
in a canoe one day l almost ran into
a school of porpois over hundred
of them gamboling through the
water as if to say who cares
| have the jaws Of two young
sharks which We're hauled in i'm
mediately in front of my hotel-to
| day we put out to what was thought
to be shark renezvous in hopes
we would get full fledged one
| instead we got what is more useful
a ninety seven pound tuna.
Fish is the very staff Of life to
| these natives-daily and many times
a day they eat fish cooked and raw
and fishing is one of the important
industries-all around the ninety miles
of island shore are literally thousands
of canoes used in fishing. They are
uncanny looking affairs and you
hesitate before getting into one-hol-
| lowed from tree log fifteen to
thirty feet long -twelve to fifteen
inches wide and about the same
depth. A sort of outrigger is fast
ened on one side and they ride the
| water as safely as any boat. 1t is
a historical fact that natives from
these islands were the pioneer set
tiers of New Zealand and they made
the long journey hither over twenty
five hundred miles in canoes.
Fish love the cool sheltered waters
found in the deeper places of this
coral reef-the curious formations
make excellent breeding ground. The
water in the lagoon is very clear
and it is indeed a pretty sight to
see three beautifully colored fish
swimming amid the coral formation
as the fish
Spearing is one of the methods of
fishing and these men are adopts.
They use Il sharp spear about thirty
inches long fastened on a pole which
is twenty or twenty-five feet long,
They use a box about twelve inches
square and eighteen inches long-one
end is glass and the other has a
piece cut out on one side so it
fits into and around the neck. This
google, as it is called, shuts out
the light from above and enables
| the spearman to see far below He
walks along the reef in water three
to five feet deep. | was out one
morning with a native and he speared
an hour
Reef spearing is a day and night
affair-and all night long the reef
is alive with the lights of spearmen
,.-he fish are attracted by the light
!, and easily speared. The large fish
however, are caught with the line
land in water fifty to two hundred
feet deep. one can walk along the