TE PITO TE HENUA OR EASTER ISLAND. 707 



likely to precipitate them into the depths below. A path of plauks has 

 been laid to the edge of one of the openings, the more readily to enable 

 the natives to obtain the water, which, as may well be inferred, is brack- 

 ish and unpleasant to the taste and thoroughly impregnated with ani- 

 mal and vegetable matter, vast masses of the latter being in a constant 

 state of decay. 



The climate can scarcely be otherwise than salubrious and healthful. 

 The southeast trades from October to Ainil blow fresh at the begin- 

 ning and end of the season. During our stay in December they were 

 moderately strong, and the weather continued exceedingly pleasant. 

 For the remainder of the year the winds are uncertain, westerly pre- 

 vailing perhaps; the weather is changeable, and there is abundance of 

 rain. Electric storms are unknown. 



A psychrometrical record taken both on board ship, and to a very 

 limited extent ashore, accompanies this report; as also a coj)y of the 

 meteorological record from the ship's log during our stay at the island. 

 In the latter the figures in the column *'wet bulb" are not entirely 

 reliable, by reason of the inadequate nature of the cotton siphon, which 

 consists merely of a few strands of ordinary lamp wick and does not 

 cover the bulb. With the excei)tion of the two craters of Rana Kao and 

 Eana Eoraka, the bottoms of which form lakes, as already stated, and 

 which are isolated and far from the habitations, there is no decaying 

 vegetable matter to be found worthy of note, and the island may there- 

 fore be said to be free from malaria and the diseases of paludal origin. 

 During the rainy season an occasional case of remittent appears, but it 

 is of mild type; medication is not resorted to, and recovery takes place 

 when dry weather sets in. So healthful is the climate, so simple are 

 the habits of the people, and so isolated are they from contact with the 

 outer world, and, consequently, the numberless malign influences which 

 there hold sway, that diseases of any kind are very rare among the Eapa 

 Nuiis, and they seem to be exempt from the ordinary ills of humanity. 

 There are no " medicine men" among them, and they have no pharma- 

 copoeia worthy the mention. 



During inclement weather a trifling "cough" — occasionally a case of 

 pneumonia — a mild attack of rheumatism, may appear, and mention is 

 also made of cerebral neuralgia. During our visit there was not, to 

 the best of our knowledge, a case of acute disease on the island. 



It is stated that from May to October occasional cases of asthma show 

 themselves, which the natives attribute to eating deep-water fish which 

 have fed on a certain marine plant, the name of which the writer was 

 unable to ascertain. This may be taken as delusion; and it maybe 

 mentioned in this place that a well-marked case of asthma, in the per- 

 son of one of the Mohican!'s firemen, was notably worse and suflered 

 severely during the entire period of our stay at the island. 



A disease of the soles of the feet, which the natives called Mno, con- 

 sisting, according to their statements, as understood, of fissures and ulcer- 



