Now as to the appearance of the palu.  When first caught, and seen by the light of a lantern or torch, it is a dark, silvery grey in colour, with prickly, inverted scales—­like the feathers of a French fowl of a certain breed.  The head is somewhat cod-shaped, with eyes quite as large as a crown-piece; the teeth are many, small, and soft, and bend to a firm pressure; and the bones in the fin and tail are so soft and flexible that they may be bent into any shape, but when dried are of the appearance and consistency of gelatine.  The length of the largest palu I have seen was five feet six inches, with a girth of about forty inches.  This one was caught in about ninety fathoms of water; and when I opened the stomach I found it to contain five or six undigested fish, about seven inches in length, of the groper species, and for which the natives of the island had no name or knowledge of beyond the appellation ika kehe—­“unknown fish”—­that is, fish which are only seen when taken from the stomach of a deep-sea fish, or are brought to the surface or washed ashore after some submarine disturbance.

The flesh of the palu is greatly valued by the natives of the equatorial islands of the Pacific for its medicinal qualities as a laxative, whilst the oil with which it is permeated is much used as a remedy for rheumatism and similar complaints.  Within half an hour of its being taken from the water the skin changes to a dead black, and the flesh assumes the appearance of whale blubber.  Generally, the fish is cooked in the usual native ground-oven as quickly as possible, care being taken to wrap it closely up in the broad leaves of the puraka plant—­a species of gigantic taro—­in order that none of the oil may be lost.  Thinking that the oil, which is perfectly colourless and with scarcely any odour, might prove of value, I once “tried out” two of the largest fish taken, and obtained a gallon.  This I sent to a firm of drug-merchants in Sydney; but unfortunately the vessel was lost on the passage.

The palu does not seem to have a wide habitat.  In the Tonga Islands it is, I believe, very rare; and in Fiji, Samoa, and other mountainous groups throughout Polynesia the natives appear to have no knowledge of it, although they have a fish possessing the same peculiar characteristics, but of a somewhat different shape.  I have fished for it without success at half a dozen places in Samoa, in New Britain, and New Ireland.  But it is generally to be found about the coasts of any of the low-lying coral islands of the Union (or Tokelau) Group, the Ellice, Gilbert, Marshall, and part of the Caroline archipelagoes.  The Gilbert Islanders call it te ika ne peka—­a name that cannot well be translated into bald English, though there is a very lucid Latin equivalent.