134 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 
happiness in the possession of land, which results in the community being composed 
of a large number of small landowners. The effect of this is, of course, to minimize 
the amount of labor that can be hired, with the direct consequence that large holders 
are rare and that application of capital would be handicapped by the dearth of labor. 
While this seems to offer something of a barrier to material productiveness, it is a 
very wholesome trait, which it is to be hoped will hold its own against outside 
influences. ¢ 
MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.—Transportation is effected by boats as 
well as by means of oxen, cows, and buffaloes. (PI. XXIL) Owing 
to the difficulties met with in crossing the mountainous interior of the 
southern portion of the island, especially in the rainy season, when the 
roads are slippery and dangerous, transportation from the vicinity of 
Inalahan, on the east coast, to Ag: afia, on the west coast, is often car- 
ried on in boats, the small bay of Hahahyan, at the southern end of the 
island, being used as a landing place for that region. This bay can be 
entered only by boats of moderate size. The journey from Agajfia to 
Merizo is also much easier by sea than by land, and boats are used 
Whenever articles of considerable bulk are to be transported between 
the two points. 
There are only three good roads on the island. The best is that 
leading from Punta Piti, the landing place of the port to Agafia, the 
‘apital, which continues northward to Apurguan, the site of the late 
village of Maria Cristina, inhabited by Caroline Islanders. This fol- 
lows the west coast of the island throughout its entire extent and is 
almost level, Another road leads from the landing place at Apra, on 
the south shore of the harbor of San Luis, to the v illage of Agat, and 
from this road there is a third branching off to the v illage of Sumai, 
on the peninsula of Orote. 
There is a road across the island at its narrowest part, from Agafia 
to Pago, which can be traversed only on foot or on the backs of. ani- 
mals. During the administration of Don Pablo Perez, who made use 
of convict labor to carry on the public works of the island, this road 
was for the first time made passable for carts, which fact is duly 
recorded on a tablet in a small shed erected on the crest of a hill about 
halfway across the island. Now it is impossible for a cart to cross 
the island by means of this road, and in the rainy season parts of it 
are so boggy that it is almost impassable with pack animals. The 
road from Punta Piti to Agat, which passes around the margin of the 
harbor of San Luis, is so bad in places that it is frequently impassable 
on horseback. For crossing boggy places and passing muddy fords 
oxen and buffaloes are found to be much more efficient steeds than 
horses on account of their natural propensity for wading. From 
Agat to Merizo, the village at the southern extremity of the island, 
the road is interrupted in several places by abrupt headlands, which 
must either be rounded by ¢ entering the sea or crossed by very steep 
« Governor Schroede r’s report, in 1 Report of the Secretary of the Navy for the year 
1901, pp. 82-83. 
