214 Pickering on the Language and Inhabitants 
The zodlogy of the Pacific Islands, those ‘magnificent fragments 
of a former world,” as they have been called,* strictly speaking, 
has been but insufficiently investigated, as those islands have not, 
till recently, been much visited by scientific naturalists since the 
period of Captain Cook’s voyages, now seventy years. The quad- 
rupeds, as far as known, are few in number; and none of the 
islands seem to possess any one species of the kangaroo. The 
birds are little better known.t In every department of natural 
science, however, in relation to these islands, we may now expect 
a highly valuable addition to our present stock of information, from 
the researches made by the members of the late Exploring Expe- 
dition, fitted out by the government of the United States; an am- 
ple account of which is to be published, as soon as practicable, 
under the direction of the government, in a style becoming the 
subject and worthy of the nation.{ 
But it would be out of place to extend any farther these re- 
marks upon the Polynesian region in general; and I now return 
to the immediate subject of this communication, —the Language 
and Inhabitants of Lord WNorth’s Island ;—in connection with 
which there will be occasion to make some allusion, also, to the 
Pelew group. 
The geographical position of the island in question has been 
already mentioned.§ The native name of it, as before stated, is 
* Malte Brun’s Geography. 
{+ Swainson, on the Geography of Animals, in the Cabinet Cylopedia, No. 
66, p. 115. 
{ Since this paper was read before the Academy, a part of this val- 
uable work has been published, comprising the general narrative of the 
Expedition, by Charles Wilkes, Esq., the commander ; and it appears in a 
style that justifies the expectations which had been formed of it. 
§ Ante, p. 205. 
