June 29, 1876] 



NATURE 



191 



has been variously estimated from as many as 160,000 to as few 

 as 38,000. The Rev. J. WilUams estimated them at the former 

 number in 1830, and Capt. Erskine, in 1854, at the latter ; but 

 by the missionaries {Samoan Reporter, 1845), the population was 

 reckoned at from 50,000 to 60,000. At present the Samoan 

 nation does not probably exceed 40,000 souls" (vol. xviii. p. 278. 

 See also vol. xvi. p. 88). 



In 1853 the first census of the population of these islands was 

 taken, and it was then foimd that the natives numbered 33,901. 

 Thus, according to the Rev. J. Williams's estimate, there was a 

 decrease of 126,099 i" twenty-three years, or 5,482 per annum ! 

 According to the lowest estimate of the missionaries in 1845, 

 there was a decrease of 16,099 in eight years, or 2,012 per 

 annum ! Capt. Erskine's more moderate estimate was 4,099 

 above the actual number ascertained by census the year before 

 he made it 



In 1863 a second census of the population was taken, and the 

 natives then numbered 35,097, showing an increase of 1,196 in 

 ten years, or II9^V P^"^ annum. 



In 1S74 another general census of Samoa was taken, and 

 the entire native population was found to be 34,265, showing 

 a decrease of 832 in the eleven years since 1863, but still giving 

 an increase, in the twenty-one years since 1853, of 364 : the de- 

 crease during the shorter period averaging 75/j per annum, while 

 the increase during the longer period averages 17^ per annum. 

 This difference is easily accounted for. During the eleven years 

 which intervened between the second census and that recently 

 taken, there was a civil war in the principal islands which lasted 

 more than four years, in consequence of which the usual death- 

 rate was largely increased. Tt.is was not merely owing to the 

 actual number of people killed in fighting, but chiefly to priva- 

 tion and suffering in those districts where the fighting took place. 

 The census shows a decrease on the different islands in propor- 

 tion to the amount of damage done, and the consequent priva- 

 tions suffered by the people. Thus Upolu, which was the prin- 

 cipal seat of the war, suffered very severely ; and here there was 

 a decrease of 988 in a population of 17,556, or more than 5 per 

 cent. Savaii, which suffered comparatively little, shows a de- 

 crease of 140 in a population of 12^670 — slightly over I per cent. 

 On the other hand, the island of Tuiuila, which was not involved 

 in the war, shows an increase of 296, or more than 8 per cent, in 

 the eleven years : the population in 1863 being 3,450, while in 

 1874 it amounted to 3,746. 



In one part of Upoiu, where a register of births and deaths was 

 kept for several years previous to the above-mentioned war, there 

 was an annual excess in the number of births over the deaths, 

 averaging from i to 2 per cent. I believe the decrease in the 

 aggregate population during the ekven 3 ears is entirely owing to 

 the war. 



The population of the small island of Nine (Savage Island) 

 was counted in 1859 and found to number 4,300. It was counted 

 again in 1864, and found to number 5,010, showing an increase 

 of 710 in five year?, or more than 3 per cent, per annum. In 

 1868 the population was again numbered, and lound to amount 

 to 5,060, showing an increase of fifty only in four years. But at 

 the latter date many of the natives were away as voluntary immi- 

 grant labourers in other islands — seventy-five being in Samoa — 

 and many others were sailors on board vessels : hence that does 

 not represent the actual increase. I know many other islands in 

 Polynesia where there is a steady increase in the population year 

 by year, since the abolition of paganism. 



But notwithstanding these facts, which give some hope for the 

 Polynesians, I fear the balance is against them in the aggregate, 

 and that the general tendency is towards a more or less rapid 

 decrease which — unless some measures for their conservation are 

 found — will greatly diminish, if not destroy them. The causes 

 which produce this tendency are, first, those epidemic diseases 

 which commit such fearful havoc in localities to which they are 

 newly introduced. Some of them, such as influenza and measles, 

 are comparatively harmless in countries where they have long 

 been prevalent. But they are terribly fatal in a new country, as 

 has lately been seen in Fiji. This excessive mortality is not, I 

 believe, owing to the want of stamina in the constitutions of the 

 natives ; but may be accounted for by their mode of life, and by 

 the fact that the inhabitants of entire villages are stricken to- 

 gether, leaving none in health to procure food for, and attend to, 

 the sick. 



But fearful as the effects of these epidemic diseases are, they 

 do not recur, and, in my opinion, there are other causes which, 

 in the end, prove themselves far more destructive. These are 

 constantly working, and are every day working with augmented 



power ; and these the Polynesians owe entirely to their inter- 

 course with foreigners. They are ardent spirits and syphilis. In 

 the case of the Hawaiian Islands, leprosy may be added ; for in 

 that archipelago these three scourges are working with fearful 

 effect, and they bid fair to sweep off the greater part of the 

 natives. But those islands must not be taken as fairly repre- 

 sentative of the state of Polynesia as a whole. In many islands 

 the drinking of foreign spirits is almost unknown, and in many 

 more syphilis is rarely if ever met with. 



The question may be asked. What possible remedies can be 

 suggested which may, by moderating, or removing, the causes of 

 decrease, help in the conservation of the Pol)mesians ? The only 

 possible remedies which at present occur to me are: (i) Strict 

 quarantine regulations wherever there is a government by which 

 they can be enforced. (2) A heavy duty (which would be, prac- 

 tically, prohibitory) on the deleterious kinds of spirits commonly 

 imported into the islands and vended to the natives. 



The introduction of measles into Fiji since the establishment 

 of British rule there does mot speak very strongly in favour of 

 the efficacy of the first remedy. But there surely must have 

 been some serious oversight or neglect on the part of medical 

 officers, when infected persons were permitted to land on those 

 islands from a British man-of-war, and such oversight or neglect 

 ought not to be repeated elsewhere. 



It would be a blessing if some measures could be taken to 

 protect the Polynesians against one of their worst enemies — 

 ardent spirits. It is notorious that an immense quantity of a 

 noxious kind of spirit is constantly imported into some of the 

 islands and sold to the natives. The taste for this deleterious 

 drink is increasing, and likely still to increase. If low traders 

 will continue to vend such a vile compound, without regard to 

 the amount of human misery, or even loss of life, which may 

 result therefrom, it appears to me that all respectable merchants 

 who do business in Polynesia should set themselves against it 

 and keep their hands clean from the traffic. 



Samoa, South Pacific S. J. Whitmee 



Wind Driftage 



In the interesting narrative of the cruise of the Challenger 

 that appeared in Nature (vol. xiv. p. 93), the wind-formed 

 rocks and drift of the Bermudas are referred to. This probably 

 will call attention to the much-neglected subject of wind driftage ; 

 but I sincerely trust Prof. Thomson and his Colleague will discard 

 such an ill-advised name as "sand-glaciers" for the inunda- 

 tions of "iEolian" or "blowing sands." The term glacier 

 belongs to ice ; beside, these sand-streams do not act like glaciers, 

 their advance being more similar to that of a lava flow. 



Somewhat similar sands occur in Australia, and were described 

 years ago under the name of *' ^olian drift," by an officer of the 

 Royal Engineers (whose name I now forget), those in the vicinity 

 of Melbourne Bay being remarkable for containing regular strata 

 of empty bottles. In Kutch there are extensive wind-formed 

 rocks, in some, such as Meeta and Kara, the cement being prin- 

 cipally salt. On the coast of Ireland travelling sands can be 

 studied on a small scale. At Bundoran, the late Lord Palmerston 

 stopped the .^olian drift from travelling by planting it with 

 the Austrian pine ; on the west coast in places considerable 

 encroachments take place, one of the most conspicuous now in 

 progress occurring to the east of Broad Haven, co. Mayo. Here, 

 a few years ago, the " bent," or grass on a large accumulation 

 of sand was cut by the natives, and the sand began to travel 

 eastward. Now it has destroyed several hundred acres of tillage 

 land and driven the inhabitants before it over the brow of the 

 hill into a boggy valley. G. Henry Kinahan 



Wexford, Jime 10 



Freezing Phenomenon 



Probably the following statement may be of use, probably 

 also it is nothing new, but in the faint hope of its being a mite 

 of value, I send it. 



In a wash-hand basin, placed in an out-house where fine dust 

 fell on the surface of the water, I noticed this last winter, that 

 there was a thin sheet of ice atop, and that the dust had fallen 

 to the bottom of the basin, and there was arranged in precisely 

 the same patterns as were to be seen in the hoar-frost on the 

 panes of glass of some neighbouring hot -beds. 



This would seem to show that, in freezing, water goes through 

 a series of fantastic movements. 



Could such motions be at all comparable with the changes 

 that the particles of iron go through from cold, and occasionally 



