528 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 



3._N0TES OF VOYAGE TO YSABEL ISLAND, SOLOMONS 

 GROUP, AND LE UA NIUA (ONTONG JAVA OR LORD 

 HOWE), AND TASMAN GROUPS. 



By REV. G. BROWN, D.D. 



Mr. Woodford, the British Resident Commissioner in the Solomon 

 Islands, having very kindly offered me the opportunity of visiting these 

 little-known groups in the Government schooner, which was being sent 

 on a visit of inspection, I gladly availed myself of his kind offer. I 

 had been in communication with some of the people from Lua Niua 

 many years previously, and I was anxious to find whether the opinion 

 which I then formed that these people were a branch of the brown 

 Polynesian race was correct or not. Mr. Mahaffy, the assistant Resident 

 Commissioner, was in charge in the discharge of his official duties, and 

 I owe much to his great kindness during the whole of the voyage. 



We left Ruviana in the New Georgia Group on June 13th, 1902, 

 on board the Government yacht Lahloo. Our course was down the 

 Ruviana Lagoon, then passing under the lee of the large island of Banga 

 and through the Back Passage, Hawthorn Sound, and Diamond Nar- 

 rows, in passing through which we had to depend almost entirely on 

 the sweeps. The Lahloo was a fine little yacht of about 30 tons, and 

 as she carried a large crew we were able by hard pulling to get through 

 the Sound by 1-30 p.m. But instead of the S.E. trade wind which we 

 hoped to get we had only light airs and long periods of calm, so that 

 we were close in t-o the coast of the mainland of New Georgia all night. 

 Next dav — June 14th— we got a strong breeze and a rough cross sea 

 early in the morning. The vessel was close hauled, making a course of 

 N.E. half E. for Ysabel. As we neared the Ysabel coast we ran across 

 a very heavy rip which, at a distance, looked exactly like a long semi- 

 circular rfeef. No man who had not previous knowledge of the fact 

 that there was sufficient depth of water on it would have ventured to 

 go near it, much less attempt to sail across it, as it was breaking heavily 

 along its entire length, and I confess that I felt somewhat anxious as 

 we approached the breakers. We could see the bottom very plainly in 

 crossing, but there was plenty of water for a \ essel of our size. I may 

 state here, in passing, that on the return voyage we passed near a large 

 " patch," which, so far as we could judge, had not more than about 

 five fathoms of water on it The explanation of this rip appears to be 

 that it is caused by a submarine reef, either rising or sinking, suddenly 

 arresting the swell of the ocean. After passing this we made for a 

 large sound about 12 miles south-east of Manning Straits. At this 

 place the large island of Ysabel is pierced from side to side by a deep 

 water-way, dotted all over with islands of varying size. This sound, 

 on which the harbor of Port Praslin is situate on its northern side, is 

 interesting as being the passage through which the Spaniards under 

 Mendana, who discovered the island on February 7th, 1568, passed in 

 the brigantine which they had built at Estrella Bay, and in which they 



