AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM, SYDNEY, MEMOIK III. THE ATOLL OF FUNAFUTI, ELLICE GROUP: ITS ZOOLOGY, BOTANY, ETHNOLOGY, AND GENERAL STRUCTURE BASED ON COLLECTIONS MADE BY AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM, SYDNEY, N.S.W. PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES. R. ETHERZDGE, Junr., Curator. SYDNEY, 1896-97. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. THE Local Committee of the " Funafuti Coral Reef Boring Expedition, of the Royal Society " (London), in charge of Prof. Sollas, LL.D., F.R.S., having suggested to the Trustees of the Australian Museum that one of their Officers should be deputed to accompany the Expedition, Mr. Charles Hedley was selected for the purpose. Mr. Hedley left Sydney in H.M.S. "Penguin," under the command of Capt. Mervyn Field, R.N., on May 1st, arriving at Funafuti on May 21st. He remained on the island for two and a half months, leaving in the same vessel. On the return voyage to Fiji, the Island of Nukulailai was touched at, where scientific investigations were renewed for two days. Mr. Hedley finally reached Sydney on August 22nd. During his stay on Funafuti, Mr. Hedley succeeded in amassing an interesting collection, particularly of Invertebrate and Ethno- logical objects, together with much valuable scientific information. The collections are now in process of description by the Scientific Staff of the Museum, and the results are being published in the order in which the study of the various groups is completed. A brief account of the results of the boring operations at Funafuti, extracted from Prof. Sollas' letters, will be found in "Nature" of 24th Sept., 1896, p. 517. R. ETHERIDGE, Junr., Curator. Sydney, 21st December, 1896. AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM, SYDNEY. MEMOIR III. THE ATOLL OF FUNAFUTI, ELLICE GROUP: ITS ZOOLOGY, BOTANY, ETHNOLOGY, AND GENERAL STRUCTURE BASED ON COLLECTIONS MADE BY AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM, SYDNEY, N.S.W. PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES. R. ETHERIDGE, Junr., J.P., Curator. SYDNEY, 1896-1900. DU M Part I. Published 21st December, 1893. Page. Plate. Introductory Note ... ... 1 I. General Account of the Atoll of Funafuti. By Charles Hedley 1 II. Eock Specimens from Funafuti. By T. Cooksey ... ... ... 73 III. Aves from Funafuti. By A. J. North ... 79 Part n. Published 25th February, 1897. IV. The Insect Fauna. By W. J. Rainbow ... 89 i. V. The Arachnidan Fauna. By W. J. Eainbow 105 ii. - v. VI. The Crustacea By Thomas Whitelegge ... .127 vi. -vii. VII. The Echinodermata. By Thomas Whitelegge 155 Part HI. Published 12th July, 1897. VIII. The Mammals, Reptiles, and Fishes of Funafuti. By Edgar R. Waite 165 viii. IX. The Enteropneusta of Funafuti, Part I. By Jas P. Hill 203 ix. X. The Alcyonaria of Funafuti, Part I. By Thomas Whitelegge 211 x.-xii. Part IV. Published 27th September, 1897. XI. The Ethnology of Funafuti. By Charles Hedley 227 xiii.-xv. Part V. Published 17th November, 1897. XII. The Alcyonaria of Funafuti, Part 2. By Thomas Whitelegge 307 xvi.-xvii. XIII. The Sponges of Funafuti. By Thomas Whitelegge 323 xviii. XIV. The Enteropneusta of Funafuti, Part 2. By Jas. P. Hill ., . 336xix.-xxii. FUNAFUTI ATOLL. Part VI. Published 21st February, 1898. Page. Plate. XV. The Madreporaria of Funafuti. By Thomas Whitelegge 349 Part VII. Published 6th March, 1899. XVI. The Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa, Actinozoa and Vermes. By Thomas Whitelegge and James P. Hill 369 xxiii. XVII. TheMolluscaof Funafuti, Parti. By Charles Hedley 395 xxvii. Part VIII. Published 3rd July, 1899. XVIII. The Mollusca of Funafuti, Part II. By Charles Hedley 489 XIX. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti 511 Part IX. Published 7th August, 1899. XX. The Fishes of Funafuti (Supplement). By Edgar R. Waite, F.L.S 539 XXI. The Mollusca of Funafuti (Supplement). By Charles Hedley 547 Part X. Published 16th May, 1900. Title Page, Contents, and Index 571 LIST OF THE CONTRIBUTOR. Cooksey, Thomas Page Rock Specimens 73 Etheridge, B., Junr. Introductory Note ... ... ... ... I. Medley, Charles- General Account of the Atoll 1 The Ethnology 227 The Mollusca, Part 1 395 The Mollusca, Part II 489 The Mollusca (Supplement) 547 Hedley, Charles, and others- Summary of the Fauna ... .... 511 Hill, James P. - The Enteropneusta, Part 1 203 The Enteropneusta, Part II 336 North, Alfred J. Aves 79 Rainbow, W. J.- The Insect Fauna 89 The Arachnidan Fauna 105 Waite, Edgar E.- The Mammals, Beptiles, and Fishes 165 The Fishes of Funafuti (Supplement) 539 Whitelegge, Thomas The Crustacea 127 The Echinodermata 155 The Alcyonaria, Part 1 213 The Alcyonaria, Part II 307 The Sponges 323 The Madreporaria 349 Whitelegge, Thomas, and James P. Hill- The Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa, Actinozoa, and Vermes 371 LIST OF THE PLATES. [NOTE. For the convenience of those who prefer to bind the Plates with the text, rather than at end of the volume, the pages which they should face are indicated in margin.] Plate. To face Pag e I. Insects 92 II. Arachnids 108 III. Arachnids 112 IV. Arachnids .'. 116 V. Arachnids 120 VI. Crustacea 134 VII. Crustacea 144 VIII. Mammals and Fishes 166 IX. Enteropneusta 206 X. Alcyonaria 216 XL Alcyonaria 218 XII. Alcyonaria ... 224 XIII. Method of putting on a " tukai " dress 240 XIV. Method of scraping coconut with the "twaikarea" 262 XV. Canoe and appurtenances 280 XVI. Alcyonaria 308 XVII. Alcyonaria 314 XVIII. Sponges 326 XIX. Enteropneusta 336 XX. Enteropneusta 338 XXI. Enteropneueta 342 XXII. Enteropneusta 344 XXIII. Hydrozoa 372 XXIV. Zoantharia 385 XXV. Zoantharia 386 XXVI. Zoantharia 388 XXVII. Zoantharia ., .390 CORRECTIONS. Page iii., paragraph 2, line 2 -for " Mervyn " read " Mostyn. 9, 4, line I for " Mervyn " read " Mostyn." 20, foot-note for " 1844" read " 1884, p. ." 71, paragraphs, line 4 for " supplied '' read " applied." 97, line 6 for " Nob " read " Latr." 98, line 17 for " Nob " read " Macq." 155, heading, above Echinodermata, read, " [VII.] " 220, line 34 for " VIRIDE " read " VIBIDIS." 231, line 2 for " genealologies" read " genealogies.' 250, foot-note -for " ix." read " xi." 276, foot-note t for " 1897" read " 1887." 301, foot-note * for " 1876 " read " 1878." 389, paragraphs, line 1 add after fig. 2, "and Plate xxvii., fig. 1.' 389, 4, line 3 /or "fig. 6" read "fig. 2." 389, 4, line 7 /or " fig. 7 " read " fig. 1." 390, 3, line 2 for " fig. 8 " read " Plate xxvii., fig. 2." 390, 3, line 10 delete "&g. 8." 392, 2, line 4 for " perceptable " read " perceptible." 398, 2, line 4- for " indicate " read " indicates." 398, 4, line 4 for " have " read " has." ,, 399, 4, lineS for " reject " read " rejects." 528, line 16 for " davidi " read " davidis." 530, line 38 for " Chiridota " read " Chirodota." CATALOGUE SLIPS. MAIN SERIES ENTRY. Australian Museum, Sydney, Memoir iii. The Atoll of Funafuti, Ellice Group : Its Zoology, Botany, Ethnology, and General Structure, based on Collections made by Mr. Charles Hedley, of the Australian Museum. Published by order of the Trustees. R. Etheridge, Junr., Curator. 1 vol. 8vo., Sydney, 1896-1900- CONTENTS. PART 1. Introductory Note. General Account, by C. Hedley. Eock Specimens, by T. Cooksey. Aves, by A. J. North. 21st Dec. 1896 PART 2. The Insect Fauna, by W. J. Rainbow. The Arachnidan Fauna, by W. J. Rainbow. The Crustacea, by Thomas Whitelegge. The Echinodermata, by Thomas Whitelegge. 25th Feb. 1897 PART 3. The Mammals, Reptiles, and Fishes, by Edgar R. Waite. The Enteropneusta, Part I., by Jas. P. Hill. The Alcyonaria, by Thomas Whitelegge. 12th July, 1897 PART 4. The Ethnology, by Charles Hedley. 27th Sep. 1897 PART 5. The Alcyonaria, Part II., by Thomas Whitelegge. The Sponges, by Thomas Whitelegge. The Enteropneusta, Part II., by Jas. P. Hill. PART 6. The Madreporaria, by Thomas Whitelegge. 2lst Feb. 1898 PART 7. The Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa, Actinozoa, and Vermes, by Thomas Whitelegge and Jas. P. Hill. The Mollusca, Part I., by Charles Hedley. 6th March, 1899 PART 8. The Mollusca. Part II., by Charles Hedley. Summary of the Fauna. 3rd July, 1899 PART 9. The Fishes (Supplement), by Edgar R. Waite. The Mollusca (Supplement), by Charles Hedley. 7th Aug. 1899 Part 10. Title Page, Preface, Contents, and Index. 16th May, 1900 [II.] AUTHOR ENTRIES. Cooksey, T. Eook Specimens from Funafuti. Sydney, 1896. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 1, 1896. Hedley, Charles- General Account of the Atoll of Funafuti. Sydney, 1896. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 1, 1896. Hedley, Charles- Ethnology (The) of Funafuti. Sydney, 1897. Australian Museum, Memoir in., part 4, 1897. Hedley, Charles Mollusca (The) of Funafuti : Part I. Gastropoda. Sydney, 1899. Mollusca (The) of Funafuti : Part II. Pelecypoda and Brachi- poda. Sydney, 1899. Mollusca (The) of Funafuti : Supplement. Sydney, 1899. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., parts 7, 8, 9, 1899. Hedley, C., and others- Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Sydney, 1899. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 8, 1899. Hill, James P. Enteropneusta (The) of Funafuti : Parts I. and II. Sydney, 1897. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., parts 3, 5, 1897. Hill, James P.- Zoanthariaof Funafuti. (See Whitelegge and Hill Hydrozoa, &c., of Funafuti). Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 7, 1899. North, Alfred J.- Aves from Funafuti. Sydney, 1896. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2. 1896, EM Rainbow, W. J.- Insect (The) Fauna of Funafuti. Sydney, 1897. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2, 1897. Rainbow, W. J.- Arachnidan (The) Fauna of Funafuti. Sydney, 1897. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2, 1897. Waite, Edgar R. Mammals (The), Fishes and Eeptiles of Funafuti. Sydney, 1897. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 3, 1897. Waite, Edgar R.- Fishes (The) of Funafuti : Supplement. Sydney, 1899. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part y, 1899. WkiteJegge, Thomas- Crustacea (The) of Funafuti. Sydney, 1897. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2, 1897. Whitelegge, Thomas Echinodermata (The) of Funafuti. Sydney, 1897. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2, 1897. Whitelegrge, Thomas Alcyonaria (The) of Funafuti : Parts I and 2. Sydney, 1897 Australian Museum, Memoir Hi , parts 8, 5, 1897. Whitelegge, Thomas- Sponges (The) of Funafuti. Sydney, 1897. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi , part 5, 1897. Whitclegge, Thomas - Madreporaria (The) of Funafuti. Sydney, 1898. Australian Museum, M9moir Hi., part 6, 1898. Whitelegge, Thomas and James P. Hill Hydrozoa (The), Scyphozoa, Actinozoa, and Vermes of Funafuti. Sydney, 1899. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi , part 7, 18U9. SUBJECT ENTRIES. Periodicals. D. 1. Museum Publication. Australian Museum, Memoir HI. The Atoll of Funafuti. Sydney, 8vo., 1896-1900. Topography. E. 2. Voyages and Travels, Australia and Pacific. Funafuti, Atoll of. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., 1896 - 1900. Geology. C. 1. 59-9. General Account of the Atoll of Funafuti. C. Hedley. Australian Museum, Memoir- Hi., par I i., 1896. Eock Specimens from Funafuti. T. Cooksey. Australian Museum, Memoir iii., part i., 189G. Ethnology. B. 3. 57'2. General Account of the Atoll of Funafuti. C. Hedley. Sydney, 1896. Ethnology (The) of Funafuti. Chas. Hedley. Australian Museum, Memoir iii., part 4, 1897- Botany. B. 1. 58 'O. General Account of the Atoll of Funafuti. C. Hedley. Australian Museum, Memoir iii., part 1, 1896. Funafuti. 59*19. General Account of the Atoll of Funafuti. C. Hedley. Sydney, 1896. Australian Museum, Memoir iii., part 1, 1896. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir iii., part 8, 1899. Formanifera. A. 8. 59*31 '2. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir iii .part U, 189U. [v.] Sponges. A. 8. 59*34. Sponges (The) of Funafuti. T. Whitelegge. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 5, 1897. Actinozoa. A. 8. 59*36. Hydrozoa (The), Scyphozoa, Actinozoa, &c., of Funafuti. T. Whitelegge and J. P. Hill. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 7, 1899. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 8, 1899. Actinozoa. A. 8. 593G"2. Alcyonaria of Funafuti. Thos. Whitelegge. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., parts 3 and 5, 1897. Zoantharia. A. 8. 59-36-3. Hydrozoa (The), Scyphozoa, Actinozoa, and Vermesof Funafuti. T. Whitelegge and J. P. Hill. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 7, 1899. Corals. A. 8. SO'SG'G. Madreporaria (The) of Funafuti. T. Whitelegge. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 6, 1898. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 8, 1899. Hydrozoa. A. 8. 59*37. Hydrozoa (The), &c., of Funafuti. T. Whitelegge and J. P. Hill. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 7, 1899. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 8, 1899. Scyphozoa. A. 8. 59*37'3. Hydrozoa (The), Scyphozoa, &c., of Funafuti. T. Whitelegge and J. P. Hill. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi , part 7, 1899. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part S, 1899. Echinodermata. A. 7. 59*39. Echinodermata (The) of Funafuti. T. Whitelegge. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2, 1897. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 8, 1899. Lvi.1 Enteropneusta. 59*39*9. Enteropneusta (The) of Funafuti. James P. Hill. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., parts 3,5, 1897. Hemichorda. 59*39*9. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 8, 1899. Mollusca. A. 5. 59*4. Mollusca (The) of Funafuti. C. Hedley. Australian Museum, Memoir in,, parts 7, 8, 9, 1899. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 8, 1899. Mollusca. A. 5. Felecypoda. 59*41. Mollusca (The) of Funafuti. C. Hedley. Australian Museum, Memoir iii., part 8, 1899. Mollusca. A. 5. Gasteropoda. 59-43. Mollusca (The) of Funafuti. C. Hedley. Australian Museum, Memoir iii., part 7, 1899. Mollusca. A. 5. Brachiopoda. 59*48. Mollusca (The) of Funafuti. G. Hedley. Australian Museum, Memoir iii., part 8, 1899. Chzetopoda. A. 7. 59-51-4. Hydrozoa (The), Scyphozoa, Actinozoa, and Vermes of Funafuti. T. Whitelegge and J. P. Hill. Australian Museum, Memoir in., part 7, 1899. Annelida. A. 7. 59*51-4. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir iii., part 8, 1899. Gephyrea. A. 7. 59'51*74. Hydrozoa (The), Scyphozoa, Actinozoa, and Vermes of Funafuti. T. Whitelegge and J. P. Hill. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 7, 1899. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir iii., part 8, 1899. [VII.] Crustacea. A. 7. 59'53. Crustacea (The) of Funafuti. T. Whitelegge. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2, 1897. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Musvum, Memoir Hi., part 8, 1899. Arachnida. A. 7. 59'54. Arachnidan (The) Fauna of Funafuti. W. J. Eainbow. Australian Museum, Memoir iii , part 2, 1897. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 8, 1899. Myriopoda. A. 7. 59-56. Insect (The) Fauna of Funafuti. W. J. Rainbow. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2, 1897. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 8, 1899. Insecta. A. 6. 59'57. Insect (The) Fauna of Funafuti. W. J. Rainbow. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2, 1897. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 8, 1899. Insecta. A. 6. Orthoptera 59-57*2. Insect (The) Fauna of Funafuti. W J. Rainbow. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2, 1897. Insecta. A. 6. Fseudoneuroptera. 59*57*3. Insect (The) Fauna of Funafuti. W. J. Rainbow. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi , part 2, 1897. Insecta. A. 6. Hemiptera. 59'57'5. Insect (The) Fauna of Funafuti. W. J. Rainbow. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2, 1897. Insecta. A. 6. Coleoptera. 59*57-6. Insect (The) Fauna of Funafuti. W. .1. Rainbow. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2, 1897. [VIII.] Insecta. A. 6. Diptera. 59'57'7. Insect (The) Fauna of Funafuti. W. J. Rainbow. Australian Museum, emoir Hi., part 2, 1897. Insecta. A. 6. Lepidoptera. 59'57"8. Insect (The) Fauna of Funafuti. W. J. Rainbow. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2, 1897. Iiisecta. A. 6. Hymenoptera. 59'57'9. Insect (The) Fauna of Funafuti. W. J. Rainbow. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 2, 1897. Vertebrata. 59'6. Mammals, Fishes, and Reptiles of Funafuti. Edgar R. Waite. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 3, 1897. Fishes. A: 4. 59'7. Mammals, Fishes, &c., of Funafuti. Edgar R. Waite. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 3, 1897. Fishes (The) of Funafuti : Supplement. Edgar R. Waite. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 9, 1899. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 8, 1899. Reptiles. A. 3. 59-81. Mammals, Fishes, and Reptiles of Funafuti. Edgar R. Waite. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 3, 1897. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part #, 1899. Birds. A. 2. 59'82. Aves from Funafuti. A. J. North. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 1, 1896. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir iii. t part 8, 1899. Mammalia. A. 1. 59'9. Mammals (The), &c., of Funafuti. Edgar R. Waite. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 3, 1897. Summary of the Fauna of Funafuti. Australian Museum, Memoir Hi., part 8, 1899. GENERAL ACCOUNT OF FUNAFUTI BY C. HEDLEY, Conchologist to the Australian Museum. p.] GENERAL ACCOUNT OIF BY C. HEDLEY, Conchologist to the Australian Museum. THE ARCHIPELAGO. THE Ellice Group is an Archipelago of somewhat vague limits, which trends for about four hundred miles in a north-westerly and south-easterly direction, and lies between Lat. 5 35' and 11 20' South, and Long. 176 a and 180 East. After a gap of a hundred and fifty miles, the same general trend is con- tinued across the equator into the Northern Hemisphere by the Gilberts, otherwise known as the Kingsmill or Line Islands, whose physical features repeat those of the Ellice Group, though the character of their inhabitants is widely different. This particular archipelago is indeed but a link in a huge chain of islands which extends for about 3,500 miles from the Austral Islands through the Herveys, Samoas, Ellices, and Gilberts, to the Marshalls, forming the S.W. edge of that axial trough described by Dana* as the Central Depression of the Pacific, mapped by Whitmeef as the Great Atoll Valley, and mentioned by Lapworth as " the mightiest of all the submarine buckles of the earth crust ;"i the opposite N.E. edge of which is indicated by the answering chain of islands stretching from Hawaii to Kure. West of this Marshall- Austral chain (the " zone pacifique australe " of Sacco), and roughly parallel both to it and to the East Australian coast, is a second series of elevations whose contour, as shown by the " Challenger's " cross sections, |j is that of waves directed westward. These latter elevations have in com- mon a fauna and flora characteristically continental, in contrast to the essentially drift fauna and flora of the outer chain, from which they are also distinguished by a system of volcanoes. The term Melanesian Plateau has been proposedU as a collective geographical name for these elevations, whose summits, now pro- jecting as dry land, are New Zealand, Lord Howe Island, New * Dana Corals and Coral Islands, 1872, p. 328. t Encyc. Britt., (9) xix., 1885, PI. iii. + Rep. Brit. Assoc. for 1892 (1893), p. 705. Sacco Essai sur 1'Orogenie de la Terre, Turin, 1895, p. 31. j| Challenger Eeports Deep Sea Deposits, 1891, Diagrams, 11, 12, 13. IF Hedley Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (2), vii., 1892 (1893), p. 335. 4 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. Caledonia, New Hebrides, Fiji and the Solomons, which during the life of the existing fauna have been first deeply sunk and then slightly elevated. Viewing Australia as the massif around which have been concentrically heaped up* this inner and outer chain, it is noteworthy that the only point in which the outer chain has swelled into large and lofty islands is where, in the Samoan Archipelago, it has swept on to the heel of the Melanesian Plateau. Proceeding southwards the following are the inhabited islands of the Ellice : Nanomea, Niutao, Nanomana, Nui, Vaitapu, Nukufetau, Funafuti, Nukulailai, and Nurakita. Every member of the group is essentially an atoll or lagoon island, but in the smallest, like Nurakita, the structure is masked by the filling in of the lagoon having reached completion, and converted the interior of the atoll from water to land. To elucidate the relation of Funafuti to the other members of the group, the following sketch of the archipelago is compiled from the notes of various travellers : NUEAKITA. " Six hundred miles from Samoa, sailing north- westerly, the first of the group, Sophia Island, is sighted. It is the south-easterly outlier of the group, and is the only one of sufficient height to be seen from the vessel's deck at a distance of twenty miles. Until a few years ago it was uninhabited, although the people of the next island, Nukulaelae, say that ' in the old, old time, many people lived there. 'f It is about three miles and a half in circumference, has bub few cocoanuts growing upon it, and would have remained untenanted in its loneliness to this day 'out for the discovery of a fairly valuable deposit of guano. Then it was taken possession of by an enterprising American store- keeper in Samoa, named Moors, who landed native labourers and worked, and is still working, the deposit. The old native name * In this connection Messrs. Haddon, Sollas and Cole (On the Geology of Torres Straits, Trans. E. Irish Acad., xxx., 1894, p. 473) have remarked that, " As our knowledge grows, we the more distinctly see in Australia and its islands the ruins of a great southern continent, fractured and submerged, possibly during the great Alpine Himalayan revolutions, and now in process of resurgence, as the vast folds of the earth's crust roll slowly inwards upon the central continental mass." f Other instances of Pacific islands once inhabited but afterwards depopulated by war, famine, disease or storm, are : Caroline Island, where the American Scientific Expedition discovered maraes, &c. (Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci., ii., 1884) j Gente Hermosa, of which Whitmee says, " The island was formerly inhabited by a large race of people whose skeletons are now found, all of them I am told exceeding six feet in length. No one knows by what means they became extinct, but the fact that their skeletons are lying unburied in various parts of the island, points to famine, or an epidemic which quickly proved fatal to all the people, as the probable cause " (Missionary Cruise in the S. Pacific, 1871, p. 6) ; and Palmerston Island, described by Gill (Jottings from the Pacific, 1885, p. 37). GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLEY. 5 of this spot is Ulakita a name, by. the way, that is almost unknown, even to the local traders in the Ellice Group."* NUKULAILAI. " Eighty or ninety miles away is Nukulaelae,t a cluster of thirteen low-lying islets, forming a perfect atoll, and enclosing with a passageless and continuous reef a lagoon five miles in length by three in width. This narrow belt of land in no case are any of the islets over a mile in width is densely covered with cocoanuts, and, seen from the ship, presents an enchanting appearance of the highest green, accentuated on the westerly or lee shore by beaches of the most dazzling white. Thirty years ago Nukulaelae had a population of four hundred natives. Then one day there came along two strange vessels a barque and a brig and hove-to close to the reef ; and in a few hours nearly three hundred of the unfortunate, unsuspecting, and amiable natives were seized and taken on board by the Peruvian throat-cutters and kidnappers that had swept down upon them, and, with other companions in misery, torn from their island homes, were taken away to slavery in the guano fields of the Chincha Islands. Of the Nukulaelae people none ever returned, and all but two perished miserably under their cruel taskmasters on the gloomy Chinchas."+ " Fangafana is the name of the islet on which the settlement stands. Nukulaelae is the name of another islet and is used to designate the group. Near tradition traces the people to the island of Funafuti ; remote mythology says that Mauke, the first man, had his origin in a stone." The next atoll, FUNAFUTI or Ellice Island, is reserved for a more extended description, and passing over it we come to NUKUFETAU, or DePeyster's Group, lying sixty miles to the leeward and con- sisting of " A very beautiful group of thirty-seven islets almost surrounding a lagoon. The name signifies the land of the fetau ( C ' alopliyllum inophyllum), the only indigenous tree of large size found there. The settlement is located on the island of Te anamu, and there are houses also on Sakuru.|| Fairly good water can be obtained at Te anamu. Other islets in this group are Te afuavea, Te afuana, Te afatule, Paifa, Funata, Mata Nukulaelae (like Nukulaelae), Teafualoi, Nualei, Niuatangi, Teafuanono, Motu tu lua, Teafuniua, Niuatui, Niuatibu (a Gil- bert Island name), Oua, Lafaga (where there is said to be fresh water), Niuaruko, Faiava, Potiki, Moturaro (here also water is to be found), Motufetau, Motuloa, Te afua, Te motumua (here * Becke Evening News, Sydney, 25 April, 1896. f Officially spelt Nukulailai, otherwise the Mitchell Group. J Becke loc. cit. Turner Samoa, 1884, p. 280. j| " Sakuru seems to have been uplifted ten or twelve feet." Turner, loc. cit., p. 284. 6 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. also there is water), Te afualoto, Motuloto, Te afua fale niu, Te afuatakalau, Te fale (here also there is said to be water). The names here given will, to those acquainted with Gilbert Island, Tongan, Samoan, and Rarotongan dialects, furnish instances of the influence of all these dialects in the nomen- clature of the group."* In 1884 Mr. C. M. Woodford estimated the population at 240. t VAITUPU. "Oaitupuj (literally 'the fountain of water') is although nearly the smallest, the most thickly populated of all. It has no lagoon accessible from the sea, and landing even is not always easy. Here, although the soil is better than that of the other islands, and the natives have taro, bananas, and pumpkins to vary the monotonous diet of cocoanut and fish obtaining elsewhere in the Ellices, they are very subject to that species of eczema known as tinea dequamans (locally it is called 'lafa')." The Rev. S. J. Whitmee says|| : " It is nearly round, about four miles across, and has a salt water lagoon in the centre, com- pletely shut off from the sea by a ring-like strip of land about half a mile across. The population amounting to three hundred and seventy-six are very advanced." The next island, Nui, Egg or Netherland Island, is remarkable for being in the possession of an outlying colony of Gilbert Islanders or " Tafitos," differing from the Ellice Islanders in language, customs, appearance and demeanor.H Moresby says: " We communicated with Egg or Netherland Island, a crescent- shaped reef, with the horns of the crescent lying about two and a half miles north and south of each other. The two hundred inhabitants were all Christians, and had escaped the kidnapper ; their village stands on an islet on the southern horn."** NANOMANA. "Nanomaga, the Hudson Island ft of Commodore Wilkes, is the smallest of the group. It is barely a mile and a half long, and not one in width, yet supports a population of six hundred people. The writer (who was the second white trader there since the people accepted Christianity in 1870) spent a year on the island, and can bear testimony to the kindly nature and honesty of its people. During all the time he lived there as * Kev. J. E. Newell Proc. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci. for 1895 (1896), p. 609. fGeogr. Journ. 1895, vi , p. 344. I Officially Vaitupu, otherwise Tracey Island. Becke loc. tit. || In Findlay Directory of the South Pacific Ocean, 1877, p. 753. T Turner, Becke, Newell and Findlay loc. cit. Whitmee Journ. Anthrop. Inst., viii., 1879, p. 274. ** Moresby New Guinea, 1876, p. 77. ft After the Commander of the " Peacock." GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLEY. 7 agent for Messrs. John S. De Wolf and Company, of Liverpool, he never had as much as a scrap of tobacco stolen from him, although his trade goods were piled up indiscriminately on the floor of his house, which had neither doors, locks, nor a bolt of any kind. In this, however, the Nanomagans are peculiar the other islanders are not so particular."* " There is a lagoon here, centre very deep, sides very muddy," writes Dr. Gill in a MS. account of a visit to this island in 1872, which he has kindly allowed me to peruse. Wilkes, however, denied it a lagoon, and none is shown upon the Admirality Chart (South Pacific, No. 766, Ed. 1893). " NIUTAO, Lynx or Speidenf Island is an atoll about three and a half miles in circumference, and has two small lagoons. It is said to have had its origin with other islands in two ladies, the one called Pai and the other Vau. They came from the Gilbert Islands with a basket of earth, and wherever they threw it about the islands sprang up. Other traditions say that the people came from Samoa in two canoes which drifted thither. The one went to Vaitupu and the other to Niutao."| "This island," Moresby informs us, " differs from the others of the group in having no guarding reef, and no companion islands near it. It stands alone in the ocean, scarcely raised above its level, and is simply a huge flat-topped coral rock, two and a half miles by one and a half in extent, which rises perpendicularly from fathomless depths, and is only saved from being washed over by the sea by a narrow shore reef, on which the great surf expends itself. We pulled to the edge of the boiling surf and met canoes, which landed us without a wetting, and were received on the beach with the most intense curiosity by the natives, who had never seen a man-of-war before. They are a well-looking, dark, straight-haired race, and number four hundred and seventeen souls, a large population for so small an island, but their food is abundant, an unlimited supply of cocoanuts, fowls, pigs, flying- fish, skipjack and sharks Their mode of procuring water is curious. They cut the coral rock to a depth of twenty feet, and make an opening wide at the top and narrowing into three small holes below, which fill with a brackish water as the tide rises. They have not any other supply, but do not need it as they have an unlimited supply of cocoanut milk." * Becke loc. cit. t So named by Wilkes, of the " Peacock." " Niutao," says Gill (Jottings, p. 1), signifies " baked cocoanut." 'ilkes, who sighted the island in 1841, after the pur " Niutao," says GDI (Jottings, p. 1), signifies " bal t Turner loc. cit. p. 287. Loc. cit., p. 79. 8 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. NANOMEA. This is the northernmost of the Ellice Group, it is probably the San Augustin Island of Murelle (1781), and Taswell and Sherson Islands of the brig "Elizabeth."* (1809). The Rev. S. J. Whitmeef says (1870), "There are two islands within three or four miles of each other connected by a reef, dry at low water. The westerly island is named Lakena ; it is nearly round, two miles or more across, well stocked with cocoa- nut and other trees, and has a deep fresh water lagoon in its centre. It is not inhabited, but is used by the people of the other island for the cultivation of food. Nanomea, the second island, is about four miles long by one to two wide ; it has a shallow water lagoon towards the east end, partially open to the sea. The inhabitants are taken together the finest race of men, so far as muscular development goes, I have ever seen. They are almost a race of giants. I believe nine out of every ten would measure six feet or more high, and their breadth is proportionate to their height. The Englishman resident on the island estimates the population at about one thousand." Becke writesj " There were last year eight hundred and thirty people on the two islands, Nanomea and Lakena." Here " the men are heavily bearded, and not a little proud thereof." The Ellice Islanders seem ethnologically to have segregated themselves in three groups. Nukulailai and Nukufetau were anciently more or less dependents of Funafuti, with which Vaitupu was allied ; all four for instance united in the worship of Foilape or Firafi. In 1841, the Nukufetau people described their world to Wilkes as consisting of Funafuti, Vaitupu, and the Tokelaus. Nanomana and Nanomea were closely linked by their extraordinary quarantine rites, Niutao by its position and skull worship was associated with these ; the north and south group also differed in their method of making the titi (see Vege- tation post). As we have already remarked Nui stood apart. The atoll of Funafuti was discovered by Captain Peyster[| in the " Rebecca," on March 18th, 1819. According to the observa- tions^! of Captain Wilkes, it lies in Lat. 8 30' 45" South, Long. 179 13' 30" East. A position which may otherwise be described as due north of Fiji, and precisely half way between that and the Equator. It is about a thousand miles south-south-west of what Dana considered** as the centre of the great Pacific subsidence. * Mercantile Magazine, Sept., 1873, p. 257. f In Findlay loc. cit. p. 755. J Loc. cit. J. B. Davis Anthrop. Eev., vii., 1870, p. 191. || Findlay loc. cit., p. 751. j[ Wilkes Narrative U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1845, p. 295. ** Dana Corals and Coral Islands, 1872, p. 324. GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLEY. 9 The nearest high land is the small island of Rotumah, two hundred and sixty miles to the south-west ; but the nearest land of any considerable size is Vanua Levu, four hundred and fifty miles south. On nearing Funafuti, as with any South Sea atoll, a long low line of vegetation on the horizon gives the first intimation of the approach to land. Looming larger, the tallest palm trees show their plumed heads sharp against the sky. Nearer, if to wind- ward, the dense vegetation is framed by a long white line of ever breaking surf ; to leeward, a beach of sand, dazzling white in the sunshine, limits the forest. Not till the observer has entered the lagoon by one of the navigable channels does the atoll as a whole extend before him. In this instance Dana's poetic comparison* of an atoll to "a garland thrown upon the waters" is scarcely appli- cable, so many and so wide are the rents in the wreath of foliage. PHYSICAL STRUCTURE AND GEOLOGY. The outline of Funafuti is that of a pear, the curved stem of which is directed southwards. On the east or windward side the outline is sketched in most firmly, the thread of reef and palm being here almost continuous ; but on the leeward side so many and so wide are the gaps that the interspaces of surf far exceed those dots where the atoll rim emerges as dry land. The lagoon, a noble shest of water about ten miles long and eight broad, thus bounded, is plentifully besprinkled with shoals, many of which rise to the surface and " break." Its maximum depth is thirty fathoms, the general level of the floor being about twenty, whence it steeply rises to the beach. Beyond the atoll rim, I am informed by Captain Mervyn Field, R.N., of H.M.S. " Penguin," that his exhaustive series of sound- ings developed the interesting fact that Funafuti is not seated on any common ridge, or connected with the other members of the Ellice Group by any bank, but that it rises independently from the abyssal floor of the Pacific. The same was demonstrated to be the case with Nukulailai, and therefore the remainder of the Archipelago will probably prove " a range of deep sea cones," which Dana saidf would be so " interesting a discovery." From the reef the atoll sloped steeply outwards to forty fathoms, whence to a hundred and fifty fathoms an almost precipitous cliff sur- rounded the island. Below this its lower slope, as was suggested to me by Prof. Sollas, compared with the contour of Mount Etna. The outlines of the atoll, as it appears on the surface, are repeated with astonishing fidelity by the five hundred, thousand, and fifteen hundred fathom levels. * Loc. cit., p. 167. t Loc. cit., p. 372. 10 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. The largest islet of the atoll extends for seven miles, occupying about half the windward side. In shape it resembles a reversed capital L, or more nearly the Australian aboriginal club called " Liangle." The concave side is presented to the lagoon ; against the centre of concavity sand has been banked up, so as to greatly increase the diameter of the islet, which here attains its maximum breath of seven hundred yards. Here is situated the principal or permanent village, Fungafari ; here also is the only supply of fresh water and the gardens. North and south of this area the islet rapidly narrows to a width of about a hundred yards, which is maintained for the greater part of its length. About a mile south of the village, at a spot called Luamanif, is a well beaten track, the porterage, where, to avoid the long pull by the passage, the natives haul their canoes overland across the islet, a distance of about seventy yards, and launch them on the other side. A considerable area of perhaps a dozen acres in the centre of the islet is occupied by a swamp, which from the fact of being ringed round with Rhizophora will be called the Mangrove Swamp. The native name of this locality is, I believe, Tisala. This swamp is somewhat the shape of a sagittate leaf of an aroid like the taro ; the tip of the leaf answering to the south-east corner, while the lobes represent two branches, a broad western one stretching nearly across the island and penetrating almost to the village, and a narrow northern branch. Along its whole eastern border the swamp is walled in by a bank of shingle and rolled coral blocks, which rise twelve or fifteen feet above the flat, and on the further side of which the waves break at high tide. This shingle bank is narrowest and lowest in the centre, and carries a few scattered palms and pandanus. On its inland face a strip of Rhizophora luxuriates in soft, dark brown, rather deep mud. The chief expanse of the Mangrove Swamp is bare of vegetation, extremely level, of soft decomposing coral rock, whose interstices are filled with mud. At high tide it is covered ankle deep with water which drains away at half ebb. Following the retreating water northward, several large deep pools are encountered in the northern arm. On closer approach these are seen to be in such free communication with the ocean, that not the tides alone but every individual wave pulsates therein. Some have an easterly and westerly disposition, which suggests that they are breaks in the roofs of tunnels which extend under the shingle rampart, and open outside the reef a hundred yards away. A child, I was told, once disappeared into one of these pools, the dead body of which was afterwards recovered on the ocean beach. Striking as may be this natural siphon of the northern arm, by which the rising tide floods the swamp, yet the western limb sur- passes it in interest. Here, at a spot a quarter of a mile east of the Mission Church, round flat-topped table-like bosses three to GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLEY. 11 four feet across rise a few inches above the general level. Just such masses occur as living coral in the reefs in the lagoon, and on flaking off a chip these prove to be a small-pored Porites. From these bosses of Porites extend in rays for several yards in every direction, thin flat stones on edge like tiles along a garden walk. A glance at a fragment serves to identify the latter as slabs of blue coral, Heliopora ccerulea. On drawing Prof. Solias' attention to this formation, he suggested that the Porites and its surrounding star of Heliopora evidently both lived in situ, and that they could not have existed at their present level where high tide alone bathes them. I am of opinion that the action of the tides is impeded in the Mangrove Swamp, but that the high tide, not the low one, must be the affected level ; the height of coral growth is determined by the low tide not the high. We are therefore here facing unequivocal evidence of elevation in Funafuti to the extent at least of the range of the tide, since low water springs is the highest level to which the Porites and Heliopora could have reached. They probably also grew in smooth and sheltered water. The cone in which the island rises from the abyss suggests the proximity of volcanic force to give an upward thrust. In Honden Island and Osnaburgh Island Dana* has given striking instances of slightly upheaved atolls. Around the western edge of the Mangrove Swamp, and most noticeable in the north arm, is an old beach where a breccia of coral fragments in a platform two or three feet above the swamp has been eaten back by wave action. That this breccia formerly extended as a sheet over what is now the surface of the swamp, is indicated by a few isolated and worn cakes of it, outliers in other words, near the centre of the flat ; but whether or not it overlaid the Heliopora I possess no evidence to show, although I incline to the opinion that it did.f The beach outside the Mangrove Swamp is furthest to wind- ward of any land in the atoll ; reverting to my comparison of the islet to a Liangle, this spot corresponds to the blade of the weapon. In other words it is the most exposed corner of Funafuti. The history of the Mangrove Swamp as indicated by these features seems to me to be, that a hurricane breaking on the eastern face of Funafuti, tore down the shingle rampart and *Loc. cil., pp. 333 and 335. Darwin declined (Structure and Distri- bution of Coral Keefs, 1874, p. 169) to accept these evidences of slight elevation, and endeavoured to otherwise explain an apparent instance of it which he observed (op. cit., p. 21) at Keeling Island. fA too brief note (Qt. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1872, xxviii., p. 381) by S. J. Whitnell (? Rev. S. J. Whitmee) upon raised coral rock in situ at Funafuti, may refer to the place I have here described, but I rather suppose that the subfossil coral exposed by the beach section of breccia was mistaken for coral in the position of growth. 12 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. eroded the loose coral blocks with the breccia sheet that lay behind it, until the storm had made a breach half across the islet. Afterwards the waves in the usual course of their work rebuilt the shingle bank as it now stands. Before the re-erection of the latter, drifting seeds of mangrove reached the swamp and originated the present thicket. The shingle embankment referred to continues along the whole windward face of the atoll, being highest at the eastern angle and diminishing north and south where the trade winds strike the beach obliquely. On the leeward side it is entirely absent. Six feet above the usual level of the ocean waves it represents the greatest altitude, the culminating peak, of the atoll. Great blocks of coral packed high and toppled over by gales of past years, all weathered and discoloured, compose the inland face of the bank, their appearance recalling a heap of blackened lava and scoriae from some volcanic hill side. A similar scene reminded Dana of " a vast field of ruins. Angular masses of coral rock, varying in dimensions from one to a hundred cubic feet, lie piled together in the utmost confusion ; and they are so blackened by exposure, or from incrusting lichens, as to resemble the clinkers of Mauna Loa ; moreover, they ring like metal under the hammer. Such regions may be traversed by leaping from block to block, with the risk of falling into the many recesses among the huge masses. On breaking an edge from the black masses, the usual white colour of coral is at once apparent."* On the seaward face the blocks of coral are smoothed, rounded, and beach worn, till all semblance of their Actinozoan origin has been ground away. On examining the beach at low water, the shingle bank was seen to be underlaid throughout, like that of the north arm of the swamp, by a breccia of angular coral fragments, in size usually of a man's head or fist. The corals appeared to belong to the same species as those now thrown up on the beach, some of which, presumably deep water species, only occurred too ground and battered to be worth collecting. A species, apparently a large Mussa, I knew well by sight, but was never fortunate enough to find in even toler- able preservation. Here and there this breccia was carved by the waves into fantastic turrets and pinnacles or extended sea- ward in shelves. The highest point it reached was a little above high tide mark. I thought sometimes that the mode of weather- ing and the composition of the rock indicated an upper and a lower bed, but of this I could not satisfy myself. The history of this stratum appears to be that fragments of coral torn from the growing edge have been packed in a bank like that now facing the surf, that sea or rain water cemented these into a sheet of breccia, and that a shift of winds set the waves to tear down what * Loc. cit., p. 178. GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLEY. 13 they had formerly built.* In general wherever rock appeared on the atoll it was definitely related to the situation. Thus the breccia above described was peculiar to the ocean beach, and was always overlaid by coarse shingle and rough freshly broken coral fragments ; on the leeward shore of the atoll the coral-sand-rock always accompanied stretches of clean sand composed of foramini- fera, coral and molluscan fragments ; again on the lagoon beach of the Funafuti islet there occur low scarps of shingle conglomerate overspread by shingle beaches. It would appear, therefore, that these rocks were here con- solidated under the conditions which still prevail. A little excavation with a crowbar shows the surface to be usually harder than the underlying strata. Often an apparently solid crust when overturned exhibited a lower surface bristling with pebbles that adhered to the mass by one end only. The process of consolidation, whether solution by sea water and deposition or not, having operated apparently on the upper surface and to a slight depth only. On the outer edge of the reef the surf does not permit much close examination. From the base of the shingle bank or low scarp of breccia, the beach usually stretches seawards for forty or fifty yards in a bare and level expanse, which dries at very low tides in calm weather. It then appears from its Nullipore carpet as a sheet of dull crimson. Moresby noticed this colour on Nanomana Island but erroneously ascribed it to coral. f Deep fissures appear which rapidly widen into crevasses, between which the ground rises into knobs or hillocks, pitted and honeycombed throughout. These breast the surf, beyond them the reef plunges at once into deep water. The coral appears to grow seaward in piers, as these broaden their interstices first form wide trenches, then narrow crevasses that may be stepped across, which clefts tend to be roofed in by growth of Nullipores and are narrowest at the surface, ultimately (proceeding inshore) they become mere fissures and then disappear. This disappearance only refers to the surface, for they probably form tunnels far into the centre of the islet, as shown by the openings through which the sea floods the mangrove swamp. At Nui, the Rev. S. J. Whitmee observed that " the seawater gains access to the central lagoon through the reef underneath the islands. In some it bubbles up at the rise of the tide in the midst of the lagoons, forming immense natural fountains."! Further inshore the roof may be broken, and a * A formation apparently similar to this breccia is described by Darwin from Keeling Island, and by Chamisso from the Marshall Group. Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, 1874, pp. 16 & 34. t Moresby New Guinea, 1876, p. 79. I In article " Polynesia," Encyc. Britt., (9), xix., 1885, p. 420. 14 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. sea fountain be forced through the blow-hole by every wave. Peering down into these coral crevasses, for a moment there is shown an abyss as narrow, as green, and as deep as a cleft in some vast alpine glacier, in perspective beyond perspective swim a shoal of brilliant hued fishes, another instant and a rising wave blots out the scene in a volume of spray and foam. Dana remarks that " Among the scattered coral islands north of the Samoan Group, the shore platform is seldom as extensive as at the Paumotus. It rarely exceeds fifty yards in width, and is cut up by passages often reaching almost to the beach. Enderby's Island is one of the number to which this description applies. . . As a key to the explanation of the peculiarities here observed, it may be remarked that the tides in the Paumotus are two to three feet, and about Enderby's Island five to six feet in height."* Passing inland from the coast anywhere on the windward islets a descent is gradually made on a surface of loose blocks, from a yard in diameter downwards, of broken and decaying coral. The weather has etched the upper faces deeply, and exhibits beautifully the structure particularly of the astrean species. The hardest kinds, as Montipora, Heliopora, and Millepora, had suffered little, but softer species crumbled readily under the blows of a hammer. Most of the surface of the eastern islets was of this inhospitable description, and very cruel to a traveller's limbs and raiment was it. Now and then among the loose, broken blocks, a ridge of breccia running parallel to the islet's length could be detected. Though of so barren an aspect, this country supports a vegetation of Ngia, Ngashu, Fau, Fala, Boua, and palms, sufficiently dense to everywhere shade the ground, Nowhere is this description of country more than a foot or two above high water mark, and little depressions commonly occur even in places remotest from the sea, where, when high, the tide leaks in and spreads in shallow pools, such are always densely enclosed by a thicket of Ngia and Ngashu. Traverses across such places suggested to me that the low area of decaying coral blocks represents a final stage of the high shingle bank which faces the ocean ; the loss in height resulting from decay and collapse natural to a loosely piled mass, such loss being gradual on retreating from the beach as this hypothesis demands. An accompanying transition in the state of decay may be noted likewise, the blocks furthest from the sea being most rotten. This explanation implies that the islet is growing peripherally, and that seaward from the present embankment another will in the future form. I am prepared to accept this implication, and fortify the position by quoting an opinion in support from that experienced and acute observer, the Rev. S. J. i*.,p. 186. GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLET. 15 Whitmee,* who writes of Peru in the Gilberts : " The island itself is formed of successive ridges of sand, broken coral, and shells. These ridges are most of them from thirty to fifty feet across, and the hollows formed between them are generally from four to six feet in depth. For some distance, at that end of the island which I examined, they run across, and in the middle they run parallel with the sides of the island. The whole extent examined presented the same appearance, and the ridges were so regular that they gave one the idea of being artificially formed. The waves must exert a mighty force during heavy weather to form these extensive ridges. There is little doubt but each ridge is the result of a single storm. I have already referred, in the notice of Atafu in the Tokelau group, to a similar ridge of smaller dimensions which was thrown up during the present year ; and I have seen several small islands of broken coral and shells, which were formed on the reefs in Samoa during a hurricane of a few hours duration." North and south of the Mangrove Swamp the region of decayed coral blocks does not immediately occur, but a considerable area of sandy soil intervenes. To the south a large tract of this is under cultivation, and more was so used when the atoll carried a larger population. Here also are the wells and bathing pools. To this area Dana's remarks! are quite applicable : " There is but little depth of coral soil, although the land may appear buried in the richest foliage. In fact, the soil is scarcely anything but coral sand. It is seldom discoloured beyond four or five inches, and but little of it to this extent ; there is no proper vegetable mould, but only a mixture of darker particles with the white grains of coral sand. It is often rather a coral gravel, and below a foot or two it is usually cemented together into a more or less compact coral sand-rock." The northernmost islet of the Funafuti atoll stands out of water higher by several feet than does any other. It occurred to me that the whole atoll had indeed a slight tilt from north to south, but I had no opportunity to decide whether it were so. On this particular islet there was richer red soil, plants grow here unseen elsewhere, there is also the best garden with flourishing bananas, not cultivated in a swamp in the usual Ellice Island fashion but on dry ground. A traverse of a leeward islet crosses formation quite different to that of the windward islets. The dry land is a tolerably level expanse of sandy soil, the islets are not arranged so strictly along the margin of the reef as they are to windward, but may be seated far within its border. The major axis of one islet is even * Whitmee A Missionary Cruise in the South Pacific, 1871, p. 35. t Loc. cit. p. 179. 16 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. at right angles to the general trend of the reef. From the base of the vegetation a broad sandy beach extends around the islet, it is largely composed of two species of Foraminifera, which Mr. Whitelegge informs me are Tinoporus baculatus, Mont., and Orbitolites cornplanata, Lamarck. High water mark indicated by lines of drifted leaves and shells implies a quiet sea. At about half tide mark, especially upon the ocean side, sheets of regularly bedded coral-sand-rock appear, answering in position to the breccia of the windward beaches. At a lower level the shore extends in rough ledges and deep pools for perhaps a hundred yards, beyond this it becomes more level and carries numerous loose boulders of coral rock, as large as ah ordinary chair or table ; such boulders are known as " niggerheads " on the Great Barrier Reef of Queensland, and have been described by Dana,* Jukes, f and Kent. I Everywhere small peebles of pumice the size of a walnut might be collected on the beaches. The natives say that a few years ago much pumice came ashore, coincident with which the fish from without the lagoon became unfit for food. A further account of this pumice will be found in the accompanying Report by my colleague, Dr. T. Cooksey. "Funafuti," writes Newell, || is a group of some thirty islets surrounding a lagoon twelve miles in length. . . . The names of many of the islets in this group were given me. Not only here but all through the Ellice Group I found that not merely did every little atoll bear a name, but that the names of atolls and of known spots on these atolls were significant of some fact in its history, either original ownership or some physical feature of the islet, or some historical fact connected with the place. The following names of islets in the Funafuti Group are interest- ing : Te Pava (the name of a Samoan, Upolu, war god) ; Te fua te fe'e, the offspring of the Fe'e (either the ancestor or the god incarnate in the cuttlefish) ; Aumatupu ; Te muri te fala, the end of the Pandanus ; Te af u alii, the sweat of the chief ; Te puka, the name of a tree;51 Te puka savilivili ; Te fua lopa ; Te fua fatu ; Fuage'a ; Te fala, the pandanus ; Te fala o Ingo ; Tutanga ; * Loc. cit., p. 179, figs. 1 and 2. t Jukes Voyage of the "Fly," 1847, i., p. 16. J Kent Great Barrier Eeef of Queensland, 1893, pp. 49, 104, PL xxx. These peebles of pumice are of very frequent occurrence on the shores of the inlets of the east coast of Australia. This subject lias been discussed at length by Messrs. David and Etheridge in Rec. Geol. Surv. N.S.W., 1890, ii., 2, p. 27. And for Polynesia see Guppy The Solomon Islands, their Geology, &c., 1887, Chap. x. || Loc. cit. p. 608. T Hernandia peltata, Meissn. See Vegetation post. GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLEY. 17 Te ngasu ;* Te afua fou, the new beginning (the name refers to an unfortunate incident in connection with their first contact with the white man, and their first knowledge of the deadly firearms of the foreigner. A vessel called at the mouth of the lagoon, and the natives were allowed on board. On leaving one of them stole a bucket, f The canoe containing the thief was pursued, and, to the astonishment and dismay of the company, the man in pursuit was able to produce lightning and thunder and to inflict death) ; Avalau (this islet is said to possess a spring of fresh water) ; Motu ninie, ironwood islands ; Nuku savalivali, the place where people can walk about ; Motu loa, long island ; Motu sa Nafa, the island of the Nafa clan ; Te rere ; Te fata, the platform ; Funafala, the pandanus of Funa, the name of a chief, after whom also the group has been named Funafuti." An exact survey of the islets of the atoll was executed by Captain Mervyn Field and his officers during the visit of H.M.S. " Penguin," and for further details their work in the forthcoming Admiralty chart may be consulted. The lagoon at Funafuti appears to be in course of filling up, though the agencies at work must take long to make a perceptible advance in so huge a task. In Vaitupu this has been partly, and in Nurakita wholly accomplished. The land gains upon the water at many points. A small cay in the heart of the lake presents a permanently dry surface, while low tide shows many patches of sand and gravel above water. Scattered over the whole lagoon are numerous small reefs of upwards of an acre in extent, for all of which (being good fishing grounds) the natives have distinguishing names as Fasua Takau, the Clam Shell Reef. These reefs are in a thriving condition and evidently growing vigorously. Those near enough to the surface to permit wading at low water, offered to the naturalists of the Expedition their best collecting grounds. Other reefs lying deeper seen through a water telescope, called to fancy a " rockery " in some botanical garden, if for boulders be taken round masses of Porites or Goniastrcea, tufts of soft Alcyonaria for ferns, and branching Gorgonia for shrubs. Along the centre of the concave side of the main islet is banked, as already mentioned, masses of sand which are arranged in low broad undulations, parallel to the long axis of the islet. Nowhere do they form dunes as occur on other atolls, probably because an active vegetation fences off the wind. This increment of sand is still adding to the islet's breadth. A space was pointed out in front of the village where a man could formerly take a * Sccevola, Jccenigii, Vahl. See Vegetation. t The version I heard on Funafuti was tbat the ship's chronometer was taken through a port of the captain's cabin, a much more serious offence. 18 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. deep dive, but which is now barely knee deep. Mr. O'Brien, the resident trader, told me that within his recollection this place had become much shallower. A similar spot in the lagoon of Nukulailai was shown to me by Mr. Collins, the local trader, who had remarked that it had shoaled visibly during his residence on the atoll. North and south of Funafuti islet are shallow passages* a few hundred yards in width, interruptions in the thread of land which encloses the lagoon but not in the reef rim upon which the islets stand. At low water these are nearly dry, to windward the surf breaks upon the outer edge of the reef, which continues from islet to islet without reference to the passage, and to which my previous description of low mounds, crevasses, and inner platform applies. Within these the passage offers a broad, almost level floor of shingle and rolled blocks. This area is nearly destitute of life, the great rush of water sweeping all before it and the unstable floor giving little holdfast. A few of the hardiest Gasteropods and odd scraps of living coral contrive however to withstand these adversities. Coming to the lagoon shore the passage floor is seen to extend into it in a fan, identical in shape and structure with the fan a mountain torrent spreads on entering a lake. Below and beyond the steep delta slope a coral garden stocked with fish, shells, sea anemones, and many other pretty things, flourishes exceedingly. A collector remembers with what cupidity he, floating over them in a canoe, gazed at treasures so near in the clear water and yet so far from sketch book or micro- scope. As well as I could ascertain the water, driven by the surf, pours from without to within across the passage, during ebb tide as well as flood. Whether or not these passages are growing into islets there was nothing to show, if so the shingle floor might represent the breccia in course of formation ; but certainly the filling in of the lagoon proceeds at the passage delta. SUMMARY OP PRECEDING GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 1. An elevation of Funafuti by at -least four feet is proved by dead sub-fossil reef-corals in the position of life near high water mark. 2. Darwin's theory of coral reefs as opposed to Murray's is favoured by these facts : Firstly, soundings show the atoll to be planted not on a bank but on a cone ; secondly, they also show it girdled by a precipitous submarine cliff, explicable only on the subsidence theory ; thirdly, our observations and the experience of residents agree that the lagoon is filling up, whereas Murray demands its excavation. * These " passages " are not to be confounded with the deep and navigable channels through which warships may enter the lagoon. GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLEY. 19 8. A peripheral growth at present level is indicated on both sides of the islets. CLIMATE. During our visit in the "winter" of this latitude, the ther- mometer never fell below 75 ; when it approached this minimum the natives seemed to feel the cold, as their bare skins puckered into "gooseflesh." A native who had visited Auckland, New Zealand, amused me with a description of how in that, to him, distant and frigid clime, he saw his breath appear one cold morning " like smoke," and how he felt alarmed that he were stricken by some dire malady. The highest temperature we noticed was about 92, sometimes for days together the ther- mometer would oscillate within a few degrees of 80, the latter being the temperature of the surface of the lagoon. The readings of the wet and dry bulb were seldom far apart in that humid atmosphere. A week hardly ever passed without rain, and it sometimes poured hard all day. The wind rarely shifted out of the east. Our hut upon the lee side of the islet had its sides open to the weather, yet it seldom blew enough there to extinguish a match. Only twice do I recollect a gust from the westward strong enough to scatter loose papers on the table. The zodiacal light was sometimes seen distinctly. Hurricanes seldom occur, but a few have impressed their memory upon residents. I have already stated my belief that the Mangrove Swamp is a scar upon the islet resulting from one of these conflicts of the elements. " The group," says Becke, " suffers but seldom from droughts or hurricanes, although the terrible drought experienced in the near-to Gilbert Group in 1892, which has not yet broken up, has also affected the Ellices, and at the present time Nanomea and Nanomaga present a parched up appearance. A heavy blow in 1890 also did terrible havoc among the cocoanuts, which had not the strength to bear up against the drought."* Describing the Gilbert Islands, Woodfordf remarks : " I suspect that it is not till the cyclone in its course reaches a latitude of about 12 to 18 from the equator, that the level of the water accompanying it attains a height sufficient to do serious damage. Were it not so, the Ellice Group, of similar formation, which lies much further to the southward, would he rendered uninhabitable. A wave of the height of eighteen feet would be sufficient to sweep away the whole of the population of the Gilbert and Ellice Groups." * Becke loc. cit. f Woodford loc. cit. 20 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. VEGETATION. I regret that I was unable to form a Botanical Collection in Funafuti. I did indeed attempt to dry plants in blotting paper, but the extreme mmst.nrfi of the climat.R caused the specimens to rot even in the press. Zoological study being the principal aim of my visit, and the exhausting 'work of reef collecting leaving little time or energy, botany was reluctantly sacrificed ; speci- mens of such plants only as related to ethnological inquiry being preserved in a solution of two or three per cent, of formol. The study of atoll floras was initiated by Henslow's examina- tion* of the plants collected by Darwin on the Keeling Islands, our knowledge of which was expanded by Forbesf and by Guppy.J Lists of plants from the Marshall Islands, Maid on Island,jl Gilbert Islands,!! Sikaiana Island,** Caroline Island,ft and Fanning Island, JJ show a small number of the same species repeated from atoll to atoll over enormous distances across the Pacific Ocean. The identity of the vegetation possessed by tiny islets separated by thousands of miles of deepest ocean is very striking, since paradoxically they present a greater continuity of life range than any continent can show. The inferences deducible from the distribution of atoll plants are so admirably drawn by Dr. H. B. Guppy, and are so entirely in accordance with my own conclusions, that I extract from his article " The Polynesians and their Plant-names, " the following expression of his views : "The low coral islands and the shores of the more elevated and mountainous islands are occupied by plants such as Barring- tonia speciosa, Calophyllum inophyllum, the Mangrove, Morinda citrifolia, the Pandanus, Thespesia populnea, &c., that are known to be dispersed by the currents ; and they are all plants that are widely distributed over the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The only doubt arises as to the particular route along which the floating seed were drifted, and if that can be established we may obtain a clue as to the route pursued by the Polynesians. Now a species that, like Barringtonia speciosa or Thespesia populnea, * Florula Keelingensis, Ann. Nat. Hist., i., 1838, p. 337. t Forbes A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago, 1885, p. 42. J Nature, xli., 1890, p. 492. E. Betche, Berliner Gartenzeitung, 1844. || Hooker in Hemsley, Challenger Beports Botany, i., 1885, p. 18. *[Woodford Geogr. Journ., vi., 1895, p. 34G. ** Beck Ann. K.K. Naturhist. Hofmus., iii., 1888, pp. 251-256. tf Dixon Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci., ii., 1884, p. 88. JJ Hemsley " Challenger " Eeports Botany, iii., 1885, p. 116. Trans. Viet. Inst., 1896. GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLEY. 21 is almost universally distributed in the tropical islands of the Pacific can scarcely aid us in the matter. If, however, we can find a littoral plant that has only partly performed the traverse of this region, then we shall possess in the interrupted operation an important piece of evidence. The Mangrove (Rhizophora, Bruguiera, &c.) is absent, or very rare, in Eastern Polynesia, but unfortunately for our purpose this is in great part explained by the lack of a suitable station on the precipitous shores of the larger islands. We have, however, in Nipa fruticans a plant well fitted for our object, and one well known to be dispersed by the currents. . For a littoral species it has a limited range. It is found on the tropical shores of Asia, east of the Ganges, and in the Indian Archipelago, where it abounds ; and there is no question as to its great antiquity in this region. Now the Nipa Palm, as it is sometimes termed, has attempted to reach Polynesia by two routes from the Indian Archipelago, viz., by Melanesia and Micronesia. Along the first route it has in the course of ages reached the Solomon Islands, where I found it in 1884. Along the second route it has extended its range to Ualan or Kusaie, at the eastern end of the Caroline Group, where it was observed by Kittlitz about seventy years ago. Since its intru- sion so far into the Pacific seems to have escaped the notice of later botanists, and as no reference is made to it by Hemsley in his account of the floras of oceanic islands, given in his ' Botany of the " Challenger," ' I may here remark that it is described in general terms in the narrative of Kittlitz, and is figured in his ' Views of the Pacific Vegetation,' where it was also identified and noted by Dr. Seemann in his English edition of the ' Views.' Now the island of Kusaie lies in the course of the Pacific Counter Current, which runs to the eastward from the Malay Archipelago right across the Pacific between the parallels of about 4 to 8 N. Here the Nipa Palm has reached the last spot where it could find a station. Beyond lie the coral atolls of the Marshall Group that could afford no home to a plant that frequents the extensive coast swamps, and lines the mouths of large rivers in Asia and in the Archipelago. Most of the familiar littoral plants of Polynesia have probably reached their present home by the path attempted in vain by the Nipa Palm. Since they for the most part frequent coral islands, the atolls of the Marshall, Gilbert, and Ellice Groups would form so many stepping-stones by which, in the season of the north-west winds, they would be able to find their way to Samoa and Fiji in spite of the westerly drift of the Equatorial Current."* * Among Mollusca the Trochomorphe at hand."* At Rakaanga Dr. Gill informs us that, " All turtle were formerly sacred, being eaten only by kings and priests, f It is * Mariner Tonga, ii., 1817, p. 133. fThis writer has published an interesting legend from Rakaanga (The South Pacific and New Guinea, 1892, p. 38), where the " motif" is the failure of the people to bring to the king the sacred turtle." GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLEY. 67 quite otherwise now (except at Rarotonga, .fee.)." And at Penrhyns, " Turtle and porpoises were eaten only by men. The superstition of those days was that if a woman ate of the porpoise, her children would have porpoise faces."* At Daudai, New Guinea, " Everything is eaten without regard to persons or occasions except the flesh of the porpoise."! Porpoises^ are occasionally captured by the men in a fleet of canoes, who drive a shoal of them to the beach in front of the village, and when penned in shallow water the women wade into the sea and haul them ashore. It is impossible, I am told, to grasp a porpoise by the tail, but by putting an arm round the animal's head, it may be dragged ashore with ease. Some women even capture two at once, and with one tucked under each arm successfully land them. The following graphic description is from the pen of Dr. Gill : " Shoals of porpoises are occasionally driven ashore by the Penrhyn Islanders ; they think it poor fun if the result is less than four or five porpoises apiece. When a shoal comes in sight, as many boats and canoes as they can muster, each carrying large stones, go right out to sea to cut off their retreat. The porpoises are easily driven towards shore by the sight of approach- ing boats and the shouts of excited natives. On nearing the reef, some of the big stones are dropped into the sea to add to their alarm. Again and again great stones are dropped. When close in, numbers of natives dive down among them, until, in sheer terror, they rush through the boiling surf on the reef, and are at once despatched by those ashore." With expressions of disgust, the natives received the informa- tion that beche-de-mer were eaten in some countries. Unlike the Samoans, the Funafuti Islanders were unacquainted with Echini as articles of food. I was surprised to find how little the Mollusca were laid under contribution. The large Pteroceras lambis, " Karea," I saw eaten raw and roasted. Tridacna squamosa, " Fasua tuka," and T. * Gill Jottings from the Pacific, 1885, pp. 128 and 146. t Beardmore Journ. Anthrop. Inst., 1890, p. 462. J Throughout Australasia this is the only name by which Delphinus is known, a misapplication of even greater popularity than the Australian " Iguana " and " Alligator." Gill loc. cit., p. 147. Whilst these pages were receiving their final revision, the friends of this veteran Missionary and Author are deploring his loss. The late reverend gentleman evinced a most kindly interest in the progress of this Report, and, as will be seen from the numerous references, placed his MS. notes and experience unreservedly at my disposal. 68 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. elongata, " Fasua noa," were habitually used. The former clam was sometimes collected and stored near the village on rocks under water till required. A Sepia, which I did not see, the "Feki," was esteemed a delicacy. The children amused themselves by collecting from the sandy beach, cooking and eating Paplda mitis, "Assouri." Piles of shells confirmed the statement that the Strombus luhuanus, " Paneia," was consumed. There were pointed out to me as eatable, an Area, " Kashi," a Chama, " Saupou," Nerita, " Sebo," Asaphis deftorata, " Kosh," and Vermetus maximus, " Gea." Of Crustacea the Robber Crab, Burgus latro, " Taou," and the crawfish Palinurus guttaius, " Oula," were prized. HYGIENE. The visit of a ship, though an agreeable break in the dull monotony of atoll life, is yet almost as much dreaded as welcomed. For such contact with the outside world almost invariably induces a severe cold from which the whole population suffers. Upon the arrival of our party in H.M.S. "Penguin," it was not observed that any of the visitors had a cold, yet in a few days all the islanders were coughing and sneezing from a severe attack of cold which they said the ship brought. Mr. Whitmee, "once visited several islands of the Ellice Group about a fortnight after a trading vessel from Sydney, which had influenza on board. This vessel had taken some of the natives from one island to another as passengers, and at three of the islands the entire population was suffering from the epidemic. Had this been a more severe disease the people would have been utterly helpless."* From some manuscript notes made during his voyage round the Ellice Archipelago and kindly placed at my disposal by the Rev. W. W. Gill, LL.D., I learn that he saw on Nanomana, "a woman carrying a pendulous excrescence weighing doubtless 75 fcs. ( = elephantiasis pudendi a rare thing)," also that it was the custom for the women in attendance at a birth to taste the uterine haemorrhage which occurs after parturition. From the same source T extract the following: "At Vaitupu, circumcision is not practised ; but instead of it the prepuce of little boys is drawn back over the glans and left thus. As at Niue it is clear (indeed they assert the fact) that their ancestors were in the habit of practising circumcision." Also at Vaitupu, " It was a common custom before the introduction of Christianity, to cut off a joint of a finger on the death of a child, or any other member of the * Whitmee Art. Polynesia, Eucy. Brit*. (9), 1885, xix., p. 422, foot note. GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLEY. 69 family specially beloved. On shaking hands I noticed almost every third woman had lost a finger or more of the right hand, and some gave the left rather than expose the mutilated hand."* Under the heading of Vegetation will be found what notes I could collect of plants used medicinally by the natives. And in the Ethnological Section will follow an account of the lancets used for blood letting. To the kindness of my friend, Surgeon F. W. Collingwood, R.N., of H.M.S. " Penguin," I am indebted for the following interesting notes. Prevalent Diseases of Funafuti. " Ruffa, or Tokelau ringworm, Tinea desquamosa.j The skin appears rough and scaly from constant desquamation, in many cases the whole body is affected, in others the face and neck are the parts attacked. The rate of desquamation varies considerably, where the process is slow the skin is covered in small patches an inch and a half by an inch in size ; desquamation commencing at the borders of these small patches causes sinuous outlines running one into the other. Tha scalp seems to entirely escape the disease. As indications of scratching are only occasionally seen, it seems that the irritation caused by this condition is only moderate, and in the two cases where such indications occurred the disease had attacked the face and neck. " Ruffa, when cured, leaves a peculiar mottled appearance of the skin, usually a lighter tint is produced by diminution of the colour, but the opposite effect appeared when persons of advanced ago had been attacked. Never does the skin regain its smooth velvety condition. " Most encouraging results were obtained by a treatment of this disease which consisted in washing the patient with soap and water to remove as many of the scales as possible, after thorough drying the patient was told to rub with ointment two or three times a day for three days, then to leave the ointment on the body for two or three days and finally to again wash the body with soap and water : the process being repeated two or three times. In a case under my treatment where the disease was limited in area, three such applications sufficed to effect a cure. " The following perscription proved very beneficial, and after employment in cases which I personally superintended, and with * Whitmee A Missionary Cruise in the South Pacific, 1871, p. 16. A finger joint was sacrificed in Tonga for the recovery of sick relations. Mariner Tonga, ii., 1817, p. 222. t Bakua or Tiripa in New Britain. Danks Proc. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci. for 1892 (1893), p. 616. For a full discussion of this disease, see Guppy Solomon Islands, 1887, p. 172. 70 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. whose results I was most gratified, was an ointment in great request among the natives : Chrysophanic acid ... ... 2 drachms Liquor picis ligni ... ... 2 ounces Carbolic acid ... ... ... 20 drops Beeswax... ... ... ... 2 J drachms Clarified Lard ... 1 pound There is little doubt that the essential element in killing the parasite is the Chrysophanic Acid, and the Liquor picis ligni diminishes the tendency to inflammation which is apt to be caused by the Chrysophanic Acid. The latter also gives a pleasant smell which is congenial to the native. " After constant application for a fortnight one case was cured by this prescription : Ammonia chloride of mercury... 1 ounce Liquor picis ligni ... ... 1 ounce Beeswax ... ... ... ... 2 ounces Clarified lard ... ... ... 1 pound "Tonna.* There is a disease called Tonna, which consists of a scattered pustular eruption attacking the face, neck, trunk and limbs of children between one and three years of age. In severe cases it lasts from three to eighteen months, during which time the general health of the child seems to be deficient. The com- paratively healthy skin between the pustules is dull, dry, and has, as a rule, lost its smooth soft state. In severe cases the pustules, through dirt, neglect, and unhealthiness of constitution, are apt to break down into an ulcerative process causing cicatrical contraction in healing. " In a few cases this ulcerative condition and its results are seen in adults, and, when attacking the face and neck, causes much disfigurement, exposing the mucous surface of the eyelids, lips, &c , and in one case, if not fixing the head in an immobile position, at least rendering considerable diminution in movement. " Amongst the adult population, besides the above described conditions, periosteal enlargement of the tibia and arm bones occur, which is occasionally accompanied with pyrexial attacks lasting for a few days, when increased pain and tenderness over the nodular masses is experienced. " Again, a similar ulcerative process that attacks the skin, takes place in the mucous membrane, bones and cartilage of the nose and larynx, causing a marked flattening of the nose. * Compare H. S. Cooper Coral Lands, ii., 1880, p. 73. The Tongans knew this disease by the same name in the first decade of the century, vide Mariner loc. cit., ii., p. 270. GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLET. 71 " From the foregoing remarks it will be gathered, that between these symptoms and the ordinary course of specific disease there are many points of similarity. Before proceeding further it is well to state that I was unable to find any venereal disease amongst the natives ; in fact, disease the result of intercourse seemed unknown. Yet though, in the disease called " tonna," there was no point observable of primary inoculation, many of the symptoms are allied to those noticed in the course of a syphilitic history ; thus the pustular symptom is similar to the secondary rash of syphilis, the ulcerative process apt to follow the above lesion might be said to correspond to the reminder or early tertiary stages, while the periosteal nodes and the ulcerative process of the nasal cartilages would be the tertiary stage. This comparison of course presumes that the periosteal condition,