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RENNELL - AN OUT OF THE WAY CORAL ISLAND 





Rennellese in a plantation of papaya trees, which bear melon-like fruit. 



bare coral rock, furrowed and pitted over the centuries by rain, an endless 

 expanse of blocks of coral of all sizes, with razor-sharp edges, needle- 

 pointed tops, and gaping fissures. And weaving in and out among the blocks 

 was a tangled mat of roots, tree-trunks, and lianes, in places quite impene- 

 trable. Such few tracks as there were ran between and over the coral blocks, 

 which would often be moss-grown, wet, and slippery, so that one false 

 step might mean a nasty gash in the leg. The natives, used to this ground 

 from childhood, get about with the greatest of ease, following the tracks 

 at something between a march and a skip, carrying heavy loads on their 

 shoulders and having nothing on their feet — except thick "rubber" soles 

 of hard skin. 



Here and there the forest is very open, the vegetation then consisting of a 

 creeping, densely matted liane and a fern which proved to be the widely 

 distributed tropical species Nephrolepis biserrata. We sent a rather large 

 collection of seeds and fruits to the Botanical Gardens in Copenhagen, 

 but unfortunately few of them retained their germinating power on arrival. 



In a few places the layer of soil on and between the coral is deep enough 

 to have made it worth while to burn the forest off, and here we found 

 native "gardens" of coconut palms, papaya or paw-paw (a tree with a 

 fruit like a melon), and the tuberous yam and taro plants. This biotope 

 has its own special fauna, which we carefully studied, as we did that of 



