54 "ALBATROSS" EASTERN TROPICAL PACIFIC EXPEDITION. 



great activity suddenly come to an end : tools abandoned in all direc- 

 tions ; images in all possible positions, ready to be transported to their 

 final resting-place ; images scattered all over the islajid on the way to their 

 destination. 



Some of the natives pretend that tlieir great-great-grandfathers were 

 cutters of images. In a volcanic island like Easter Island, with craters 

 rising in all directions, it is not impossible that an eruption may have 

 destroyed a great part of the large population which undoubtedly existed 

 at one time on Easter Island. With the reduction of the population but 

 little work may have been done after such a calamity, and the work of 

 cutting images have been gradually given up. In 1860, the population 

 previous to the time of the kidnapping by the Peruvians of a great number 

 of the natives, was said to be 3000. It diminished very rapidly from that 

 time. Ten years later there were only 900 inhabitants, and at the present 

 time less than 150. 



The traditions indicate one immigration from the mainland of South 

 America, another from the Galapagos, and a third from the Paumotus. The 

 last two localities do not seem very feasible in view of the direction of 

 the prevailing winds in both cases. Boats would have to traverse in one 

 case, 1500 miles against the trades, in the other, nearly 2000 miles, while 

 from the east, about in the same latitude as Easter Island, the prevailing 

 winds are favorable. Yet the natives of to-day are more closely allied to 

 the inhabitants of the Paumotus and Society Islands than to any other 

 natives. 



In spite of the difficulties of the navigation eastward from the Paumotus 

 to Easter Island, Mr. Salmon is of tlie opinion that the first inhabitants of 

 Easter Island came from the Paumotus. 



Skirting the northern coast of Easter Island one obtains an excellent idea 

 of the character of that part of the island, which is also that of the rest of 

 the island. Everywhere long slopes falling from La Perouse Mountains (PI. 

 21), or from the Blossom range (Pi. 22), the summits to the west of Cape 

 O'Higgins (Puakatiki), or the slope of Rana Kao (PI. 20, fig. 3) covered 

 with tall bunchy grass growing between the blocks of lava scattered all over 

 the surface, while on the sea face the projections of the slopes have been cut 

 off into steep bluffs (Pis. 16, 19, 20, 29). Plate 16, fig. s, shows a bluff to 

 the west of Cape O'Higgins (PI. 10, fig. S). with three characteristic cones of 

 denudation on the ridge of the slope running towards the summit of Pua- 



