460 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



light casting-nets were used with great dexterity as they waded along 



the beach, and when a shoal of small fish appeared, the net was thrown 



with the right hand. These nets were remarkably made, and in the 



manufacture a netting-needle of bone or wood was used, much after 



the fashion in more civilized countries. The coarse nets and cordage 



was made from the twisted bark of the hibiscus, and the fine ones from 



the fiber of the indigenous hemp. From the strong heavy ropes used 



in raising and transporting the colossal images to the light but durable 



fish-lines, the threads were all twisted by hand, across the knee, into 



even strands, which were multiplied according to the size and strength 



required. 



natives. 



The population of Easter Island is not stated in actual figures by 

 any of the traditions or legends, but all agree in the statement that the 

 different districts were peopled by numerous and powerful clans who 

 were constantly at war with each other. The immense amount of work 

 performed by the image-makers and platform builders would indicate 

 the employment of a great many persons, if accomplished within a 

 reasonable limit of time, or the extension over several centuries, if the 

 undertaking was carried out by successive generations. The ruins of 

 extensive settlements near Tahai Bay Kotatake plains, around Puka 

 Mauga-Mauga mountain, the Rana-Hana-Kana coast, the vicinity of 

 Anakeua, the shores of La Perouse Bay, and extending along the coast 

 from Tongariki to Vinapu in an almost unbroken line, would prove 

 either the presence of numerous inhabitants, or a frequent change of 

 location. The limited area of the 32 square miles of surface available 

 for cultivation precludes the idea of any very dense population, and 

 many reasons might be assigned for a frequent change of habitation. 

 We know that the stone houses at Orango were only occupied during the 

 feast of "bird eggs." The image-builders engaged in the quarries of 

 liana Roraka probably lived at Tongariki, and entire communities may 

 have changed location at differeut seasons of the year from failure of 

 water supply, or some equally sufficient reason. 



The early Spanish voyagers estimated the population at between 

 2,000 aud 3,000. Admiral Boggeveeu states that he was surrounded 

 by several thousand natives before he opened fire upon them. Captain 

 Cook, fifty-two years later, placed the number at between 600 and 700, 

 and Foster, who was with him, estimated them at 900. Twelve years 

 later (1786) La Perouse placed the population at 2,000. Bushey (1825) 

 puts the number at about 1,500. Kotzebue aud Lisiansky make more 

 liberal estimates. Equally chimerical and irreconcilable deductions 

 are made by recent writers. Mr. A. A. Salmon, after many years' resi- 

 dence on the island, estimates the population between 1850 and 1860 

 at nearly 20,000. Tue diminution of the actual number of inhabitants 

 progressed rapidly from 1863, when the majority of the able bodied men 

 were kidnaped by the Peruvians, and carried away to work in the 

 guano deposits of the Chincha Islands, and plantations in Peru. Only 



