2i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



cordially and kindly received by the magistrate and school teacher, 

 John Stewart Bruce, Esq., who for more than twenty years has lived 

 alone among the natives laboring to fit them to meet the oncoming of 

 civilization. Throughout our stay on Maer Island, the constant kind- 

 ness and excellent advice of Mr. Bruce was indispensable to the suc- 

 cess of our studies, and incidents exhibiting his rare personal charm 

 and high character we shall always recall as the happiest of our 

 memories. 



Through the kind permission of the government, we were allowed 

 to occupy the courthouse and the jail for laboratory quarters. 



The courthouse was an airy, cheerful one-roomed concrete building 

 which the natives under the leadership and instruction of Mr. Bruce 

 had succeeded in erecting after four years of the most strenuous and 

 concerted effort in the history of the island. 



The jail, on the other hand, was a flimsy hut of pandanus thatch, but 

 it served admirably as a storehouse for our apparatus and supplies. 



As may be imagined, our visit put an end to the orderly adminis- 

 tration of island justice. Deferred jail sentences were henceforth the 

 only sort that could be enforced upon wife-beaters and other disturbers 

 of the serenity of the island, but an even more dreadful punishment 

 was quickly devised by the chief, or Mamoose, who condemned male- 

 factors to work for us. 



This punishment, however, soon lost its sting in proportion as the 

 fame of the achievements of Jimmie, our cook, became spread abroad. 

 Four cups of strong coffee, five fish balls, a large piece of turtle meat, 

 four bananas and a yam constituted an average 5:30 a.m. "breakfast" 

 for our native assistants, so it may be imagined that starvation was 

 not the rule of our camp. 



The impression should not arise, however, that our native servants 

 were reprobates, for those whom we chose were good and faithful. 

 Indeed, we employed the same men who had served Professor Haddon, 

 whose accounts have made the anthropological and geological aspects 

 of the islands so well known. 



Fortunately one of our party could claim the honor of Professor 

 Haddon's personal friendship, -an "open sesame" to the Islander's 

 highest consideration, but despite the initial respect thus inspired, the 

 natives soon decided that we of the scientific staff were all hopeless but 

 quite harmless lunatics who were being taken around the world under 

 the guidance of our engineer, Mr. Mills. Indeed the wonderful be- 

 havior of the launch and the miraculous achievements of " Johnmills" 

 who could " saw iron " were soon immortalized in song and will doubt- 

 less remain as a revered tradition of the island. 



Maer Island is an extinct volcano which in its active days burst 

 through the old limestone floor of the wide Barrier Eeef plateau which 



