LY ALEX. MORTOX, 63 



timbers of their dwellings. The Tahit house of a village I visited 

 contained a curious colossal sarcophagus — an immense log carved 

 in the form of a shark — and held the bones of a young aud 

 favourite chief, to whose spirit the natives offered every season 

 the first fruits of the soil. 



Their rude stone tomahawks have long been thrown aside for the 

 Traders' axes ; two forms seem to have been employed, one an 

 elongated cone, flattened towards the base with a rounded cutting 

 edge, and bevelled on one side only, as in an adze, in which 

 manner it seems to have been principally used ; the other also 

 somewhat cone shaped, but spreading out wider and more 

 flattened on the cutting edge, which is ground on both sides, as 

 in an ordinary axe or tomahawk. Xot less completely have 

 firearms superseded the bow and spear as weapons of war, nearly 

 every Solomon Islander possessing some description of gun, and 

 occasionally breech loading rifles of modern kinds ; as they are 

 expert marksmen, the possession of such weapons renders them 

 formidable opponents. 



After remaining at Ugi for two or three weeks, we sailed for 

 the Floridas, another portion of the Solomon G-roup, one of which 

 was the scene of the massacre of the late Lieut. Bower of H.M.S. 

 Sandfly and his boats' crew. Having under threats enforced the 

 assistance of the native chiefs in securing three of the principal 

 men implicated in this affair, they were summarily executed, two 

 being shot, and the third hanged in the presence of a large 

 number of their tribe. The " Cormorant " then returned to Usfi 

 aiid finding that by remaining here I should have more oppor- 

 tunities of collecting, I took up my quarters on shore with Mr. 

 Stephens, where I remained until the return of the Cormorant 

 from her cruise among the Islands. 



During my stay here I succeeded in obtaining a fair collection 

 of Birds, several of them being new to science, have since been 

 described by the Curator of the Museum ; among these novelties 



