SUNDRY NOTICES OF THE ISLAND. 325 



The ridges between the grooves prevented the figures from becoming defaced 

 by friction. The most interesting point in connection with these records is 

 that the initial character is at the lower left hand corner, the succeeding ones 

 running towards the right side, at the end of which the specimen must be turned 

 upside down and the reading continued until the end is reached, when the 

 record is again held as at the beginning. This, then, is in the style of the 

 ancient Greek boustrophedon. 



[From Ellis' "Polynesian Researches," vol. 3, chapter 11.] 



Two degrees farther from the equator, and rather more than twenty degrees 

 nearer the American continent, an island is situated, which has attracted 

 considerable notice from most of the navigators who have prosecuted their 

 discoveries in the Pacific. It was discovered by Roggewein, on Easter day, 

 1722, and called Easter Island. 



This is a small hilly island, bearing evident marks of volcanic origin, or of 

 having been subject to the action of subterraneous fire. The hills are conical, 

 and were by Kotzebue supposed to resemble those of Hawaii. Nothing can 

 be more contradictory than the descriptions different voyagers have given of 

 the appearance of this island. Some as in Roggewein's account, and that of 

 La Perouse, representing it as rich and fertile; others, as Forster, describing 

 it as parched and desolate. The population, which La Perouse estimated at 

 about 2,000, is supposed by Kotzebue to have increased; by others they are 

 said to have decreased, and not to exceed 1 ,200. The inhabitants are evidently 

 part of the race which has spread itself extensively over the isles of the Pacific, 

 and they evince that propensity to licentiousness and theft which mark the 

 larger communities. 



The most remarkable objects in Easter Island are its monuments of stone- 

 work and sculpture, which, though rude and imperfect, are superior to any 

 found among the more numerous and civilized tribes inhabiting the South 

 Sea Islands. These monuments consist in a number of terraces or platforms, 

 built with stones, cut and fixed with great exactness and skill, forming, though 

 destitute of cement, a strong durable pile. On these terraces are fixed colossal 

 figures or busts. They appear to be monuments erected in memory of ancient 

 kings or chiefs, as each bust or column had a distinct name. One of these, 

 of which Forster took the dimensions, consisted of a single stone twenty feet 

 high and five wide, and represented a human figure to the waist ; on the crown 

 of the head a stone of cylindrical shape was placed erect, this stone was of a 

 different color from the rest of the figure, which appeared to be formed of a 

 kind of cellular lava. In one place seven of these statues or busts stood 

 together; one, which they saw lying on the ground, was twenty-seven feet 

 long and nine in diameter. The largest, however, that La PeYouse saw, was 

 fourteen feet six inches high and seven feet six inches in diameter. The 

 inhabitants of many of the northern and eastern islands make stone represen- 

 tations of their deities and of their departed ancestors, but none equal in size 

 to those found on Easter Island. When Cook visited this island the natives 

 appeared to possess but few means of subsistence and to inhabit very small 

 and comfortless dwellings. A greater abundance appeared when they were 

 subsequently visited by the French navigator; their habitations appeared more 

 comfortable, one of which was three hundred and ten feet long and ten feet wide. 



