454 TAHITI. 



therefore returned to the native hut for the night. The sky 

 being remarkably clear, the thermometer sank at daybreak to 

 55° F. (elevation i,8oo feet). We followed the Punaru Valley 

 down to the sea-shore, and returned to Papeete along the 

 coast. I am much indebted to Mr. Miller, English Consul at 

 Tahiti, for his kindness in hunting up guides for me, and 

 otherwise assisting me. 



Mr. Darwin refers to the fact mentioned by Ellis, that long 

 after the introduction of Christianity into Tahiti, wild men 

 lived in the mountains, whose retreat was unknown. The 

 ignorance of the natives concerning the interior of the island 

 is still, as was shown by the failure of our guides, extreme. 

 The guides living on the spot did not even know on which 

 side of the valley to attempt to scale the ridge at its head. 

 The men can climb extremely well, but they do not seem to 

 have any idea of thinking out a route, and judging it as seen 

 from a distance, which is the real art of mountaineering. 



The natives are still grateful for favours, as in Mr. Darwin's 

 time. Just as the ship was leaving the older of our guides 

 brought me, as a present, a fine stone adze, which he had Ijeen 

 at considerable difficulty to procure from Punaru Valley, where 

 it had been found in the earth, he knowing that I wished very 

 much to obtain one. The stone adzes are now scarce, and 

 fetch their full price in Tahiti. 



The orange, lemon, and lime, which grow wild all over 

 'I'ahiti, do not appear to deteriorate at all in quality, nor in 

 quantity of fruit, although in the feral condition. The fruit 

 almost appears finer and better for running wild. The oranges 

 we all pronounced the best we had ever eaten. The limes lay 

 in cartloads upon the ground, rotting in the woods. It would 

 pay well to make lime-juice for export in Tahiti. Some native 

 insect must have adapted itself completely to the blossoms 

 of the orange tribe as a fertiliser, so abundant is the fruit. 

 Vanilla, which is cultivated in the island with success, requires, 

 as everywhere else away from its home, to be fertilised by 

 hand. 



A Mushroom Coral {FiiHgia) is very common all over the 

 reefs at Tahiti. After much search, I found one of the nurse- 

 stocks from which the disc-shaped free corals are thrown off as 

 buds, as was originally shown by Stutchbury, and confirmed by 

 Semper, who considers the case to be an instance of alternation 

 of generations.* 



Though the free corals were so extremely numerous, I 

 could only find the one nurse mass. It, as in Stutchbury's 



* Semper, "Generationswechsel bei Steinkorallen," Zeitschrift fiir 

 Zoologie, 22. Bd. 1245. Leipzig, Engclmann, 1S72, s. 36. 



