684 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by fastening at the proper places shells or pebbles of sizes proportioned 

 to the magnitude of the islands to which they are intended to corre- 

 spond. 



In some of the Australasian islands the tattooing of the body is 

 made to bear a geographical significance. Liitke remarked in 1828 

 that on some of the Caroline Islands the chiefs had lines tattooed on 

 their bodies, with each of which they associated the name of some isl- 

 and or group. Thus, these savages carried around with them on their 

 own persons geographical directories that could not be lost certainly 

 one of the most original geographical and mnemotechnic devices of 

 which we have any record. 



These incidents point to a peculiar capacity or sense of the rela- 

 tion of directions on the part of the people of the islands of the great 

 sea, which is manifested in many different ways. These people do not 

 have the materials which we use for such purposes ; but, when they 

 are furnished with them and have learned to use them, they soon ac- 

 quire facility in making maps according to our ideas. Their capacity 

 to accomplish this can not admit of dispute, when it is remembered to 

 what immense distances they are able to go straight with their little 

 narrow canoes. Every European seaman must admire the skill of the 

 Caroline-Islanders, who succeed in traveling with such sureness over 

 the length and breadth of their group, through spaces in which one of 

 the islands may be more than eight hundred miles from its neighbor. 

 There are numbers, not of theoretical geographers, but of practical 

 sailors, who are acquainted with the islands, and have observed the 

 achievements of the natives, who will bear me out in this. There are 

 now in existence a few maps made by Polynesians with European writ- 

 ing materials that afford a permanent testimony of the clearness of 

 mind with which these " wild " people control their sea-voyages. The 

 most famous of them is the one made by Tupaya of Tahiti, a man who 

 went with Cook on his first voyage through the main part of the 

 Australasian Archipelago. It comprises not less than forty degrees of 

 longitude, extending from the Panmotu Islands in the east to the 

 Feejee group in the west. While the most striking feature of this 

 work is the great extent of what is correctly and plainly set down, 

 some New Zealand maps attest the special knowledge the makers had 

 of the details of their native land. One of these was compiled in 1798, 

 before any European colony had been founded in New Zealand ; an- 

 other was published by Shorthand in 1854. 



The Esquimaux have contributed important service to the enlarge- 

 ment of knowledge by the aid they have given to the older and the 

 more recent explorers, from whom their achievements in cartography 

 have received special praise. They have supplied European and Amer- 

 ican sailors with most valuable directions by drawings on both sand 

 and paper. They are accustomed to designate with great care all the 

 projecting points of the land, even the smallest ones, but all of their 



