194 [August, 



harbour is prettily varied, but not very high, and consists, to a large 

 extent, of elevated coral-rock, with recent shells in recognisable con- 

 dition ; huge clam-shells (Tridacna gigas) sometimes more than ayard 

 in length, in the holes they occupied when living on the reef, may be 

 seen cropping out even in the paths. Large plantations of coco-nut 

 palms — the dried kernel or "copra " being the chief production of the 

 New Hebrides — have been formed mainly by French enterprise, and 

 bananas, coffee, cacao, and maize are also extensively planted, and 

 appear to thrive to perfection ; oranges, limes, and papaws are also 

 very plentiful and of fine quality. The graceful Areca palms, often 

 nearly 100 feet high, have mostly been spared in the general clearing 

 of the forest, as the nuts are collected for the China market. Even 

 that unspeakable abomination, the barbed wire fence, 13 to be met 

 with in this remote spot. As usual, imported weeds are largely to 

 the fore, one of the first noticed being our common sow-thistle grown 

 to a huge size ; the bird-pepper {Capsicum), and a degenerate form of 

 the tomato, with fruit no larger than cherries, form a dense waist- 

 high growth in the banana plantations, and AscJepias curassavica was 

 here larger and finer than I had ever before seen it, even in its native 

 countries. I did not, however, on this occasion, notice Anosia 

 Plexippus ; it was a wet day, and I saw but few butterflies in my after- 

 noon's walk, though I took a very fine and handsome Euplcea, pro- 

 bably E. Jessica, Butl., Belenois peristhene, larger than in JXew 

 Caledonia, and a fine dark and well-marked form of Melanitis Leda, 

 were not uncommon, with probably two species of Terias, a white- 

 banded Mycalesis, and several small " blues." Beetles, too, were 

 scarce, but a few were met with on foliage and under bark, including 

 a form allied to Amarygmus (Heteromera) possessed of considerable 

 powers of jumping. I found the widely distributed black earwig, 

 Chelisoches morio, F., commonly among ripening bananas, and large 

 black wingless cockroaches of most pronounced odour were only too 

 plentiful under every piece of loose bark. Several kinds of laud- 

 shells, including a rare and very elegant little species (Geotrochus 

 Eva, Pfr.), were brought out in numbers by the rain. 



On the 14th we moved on to Havannah Harbour, another well- 

 sheltered anchorage, between Efate and the smaller Moso Island ; 

 the scenery here was very remarkable, from the well-defined terraces 

 of upraised coral extending in regular succession up the hillsides to a 

 height of SOO or 1,000 feet. The weather was still wet, and though I 

 was on shore for two or three hours, nothing was met with that had 

 not been seen at Port Fila, except one or two Anosia Plexippus and 



