“Letya did not die at once—­not for two days.  Cerita his wife and two white men watched beside him all this time.  Before he died he called the head men to him, and said that he gave his small ship to the two white men, together with many other things.  All his money he gave to his wife, and told her she must go away with the white men, who would take her back to her own people.  To the head men he gave many valuable things, such as tierces of tobacco and barrels of powder.  This was quite right and proper, and showed he knew what was correct to do before he died.  We buried him on the little islet over there called Besi.

“The two white men and Cerita and her two children went away in the little ship.  But they did not go to Cerita’s country:  they remained at Ponape, and there the tall man of the two—­the officer—­married Cerita.  All this we learnt a year afterwards from the captain of a whaling ship.  It was quite right and proper for Letya’s widow to marry so quickly, and to marry the man who had been a friend to her husband.”

A Hundred Fathoms Deep

There is still a world or discovery open to the ichthyologist who, in addition to scientific knowledge, is a lover of deep-sea fishing, has some nerve, and is content to undergo some occasional rough experiences, if he elects to begin his researches among the many island groups of the North and South Pacific.  I possessed, to some extent, the two latter qualifications; the former, much to my present and lasting regret, I did not.  Nearly twenty-six years ago the vessel in which I sailed as supercargo was wrecked on Strong’s Island, the eastern outlier of the fertile Caroline Archipelago, and for more than twelve months I devoted the greater part of my time to traversing the mountainous island from end to end, or, accompanied by a hardy and intelligent native, in fishing, either in the peculiarly-formed lagoon at the south end, or two miles or so outside the barrier reef.

The master of the vessel, I may mention, was the notorious, over maligned, and genial Captain Bully Hayes, and from him I had learnt a little about some of the generally unknown deep-sea fish of Polynesia and Melanesia.  He had told me that when once sailing between Aneityum and Tanna, in the New Hebrides, shortly after a severe volcanic eruption on the former island had been followed by a submarine convulsion, his brig passed through many hundreds of dead and dying fish of great size, some of which were of a character utterly unknown to any of his native crew—­men who came from all parts of the North and South Pacific.  More remarkable still, some of these fish had never before been seen by the inhabitants of the islands near which they were found.  There were, he said, some five or six kinds, but they were all of the groper family.  One of three which was brought on board was discovered floating on the surface when the ship was five miles off Tanna.  A boat was lowered, but on getting