582 



NATURE 



{April 24, 1890 



Bengali the v is often degraded into b — a linguistic 

 change that runs from Hebrew to Spanish. But Dr. 

 Bonavia might as well maintain there is no h in English 

 because a Cockney pine-grower "eats is ouses by ot 

 , water." 



Turning lastly to the question how far Dr. Bonavia's 

 book assists the cultivation of the orange in India, we 

 may doubt, with every admission of his horticultural 

 skill and assiduity, whether he is on the right tack. The 

 Khasi Mandarin can be grown almost without labour, 

 and of a quality that is not likely to be approached by 

 any horticultural skill and labour on non-volcanic soil in 

 the plains. These oranges are now picked unripe, and 

 occupy a month (often more) in reaching Calcutta in a 

 native boat. A fruit-steamer would take them down in 

 2 or 3 days from Chattuck to the rail at Goalundo. 

 Bombay would surely take many more oranges from 

 Nagpore if the railway rates were lowered, and the 

 " perishable fruit " accelerated in transit. 



Mr. Medlicott made only a hurried march across the 

 Khasi Hills when he laid in his three patches of Sylhet 

 trap, and he only visited a very narrow strip of country. 

 More of this trap certainly exists — perhaps at a low level, 

 suitable for oranges ; and the Government Geologist at 

 Shillong might, in the cold weather, possibly discover 

 some more patches. For the present, however, the known 

 area of Sylhet trap is by no means nearly covered with 

 oranges, except in the Chela valley, where the boundary 

 of the orange-groves coincides very closely with the 

 outcrop-line of the trap. C. B. Clarke. 



A NATURALIST AMONG THE HEAD- 

 HUNTERS. 



A Naturalist among the Head-himters. Being an 

 Account of Three Visits to the Solomon Islands in the 

 years 1886, 1887, and 1888. By Charles Morris Wood- 

 ford, F.R.G.S., &c. (London : George Philip and Son 

 1890.) 



' I "ILL within the last twenty years the Solomon Islands 

 -*- were almost unknown to Europeans, and their inhab- 

 itants were considered to be exceptionally uncivilized and 

 treacherous. Whatever they may have been originally, 

 they were not likely to be improved by their first contact 

 with civilization, in the form of chance visits of whalers 

 and vessels engaged in the " labour trade " — which in its 

 early days meant kidnapping and slavery, ofcen leading to 

 murder or to wholesale massacres. With such experi- 

 ences of the resources of civilization we are not surprised 

 to hear from Mr. Woodford that they are " suspicious of 

 strangers," or that they are "treacherous when they see 

 their opportunity" ; yet the fact that he lived among them 

 for several months, often quite alone and unprotected, and 

 that Mr. Lars Nielsen, a trader, lived on good terms with 

 them for ten years, leads us to suppose that, under more 

 favourable circumstances, their character might have been 

 found to compare not unfavourably with that of the 

 Fijians. There is now, however, no chance for them, as 

 they are certainly doomed to speedy extinction. The 

 numerous distinct tribes found on each of the islands live I 

 in a state of chronic warfare, incited by the ordinary 

 causes of the quarrels of savages, intensified by a general 

 mania for head-hunting and in some cases by the habit 1 



of cannibalism. So long as they fought with native 

 weapons, spears and wooden clubs, the destruction of life 

 was not very great ; but the traders have armed them all 

 with Snider rifles and steel tomahawks, the result being 

 that entire villages and tribes are sometimes massacred ;. 

 j and this wholesale destruction, aided by infanticide and 

 other causes, is leading to a steady decrease of the 

 population. 



The excellent reproductions of photographs with which 

 the book is illustrated show that the Solomon islanders are 

 typical Papuans, hardly distinguishable physically from 

 those of the western and central portions of New Guinea. 

 Their state of civilization appears to be about the same. 

 They cultivate the ground assiduously, growing chiefly 

 yams, taro, and plantains, and they even terrace whole 

 hill-sides for the taro, a stream of water being admitted 

 at the top, and conducted down from level to level with 

 considerable ingenuity. As domestic animals they keep 

 dogs, pigs, and fowls, and they had all these animals when 

 first visited by the Spaniards in 1568. The dog Mr. 

 Woodford believes to be the dingo of Australia ; the pig 

 the Sus papiiensis of New Guinea ; while the fowl was 

 no doubt derived from the Malays. They build excellent 

 canoes, fifty or sixty feet long; of planks hewn out of solid 

 trunks, beautifully fitted together and fastened with rattan. 

 Their houses are fairly built and comfortable ; and they 

 construct baskets, shields, wooden bowls, and various 

 weapons and ornaments, with the usual savage ingenuity. 



Mr. Woodford's chief occupation in the islands was 

 the collection of specimens of natural history, and his 

 account of the zoology of the group presents several 

 points of interest. It is here we find the eastern limit of 

 the marsupials, which are represented by a species of 

 Phalanger hardly distinguishable from one inhabiting 

 New Guinea. Bats are numerous, seventeen species 

 being described, of which six are peculiar ; and there are 

 four species of native rats, one of which is the largest 

 species known. About the two large rats, Mus ivtperator 

 and Mus rex, Mr. Oldfield Thomas, who described them, 

 makes the following interesting remarks : — 



" It is, however, in their relation to each other that 

 their chief interest lies, for they seem to be clearly the 

 slightly modified descendants of one single species that, 

 once introduced, has been isolated in Guadalcanar for 

 some considerable time, while it has apparently died 

 out elsewhere. Of this original species, some individuals 

 would have adopted a terrestrial and others an arboreal 

 life, and their respective descendants would have been 

 modified accordingly. In this way I would explain the 

 fact that at the present time we have in Guadalcanar 

 two genuine species, agreeing with each other in their 

 essential structure, and yet separated by a considerable 

 number of characters, all having a more or less direct 

 relation to a climbing or non-climbing habit of life. Of 

 these, of course, by far the most striking are the broad 

 foot-pads and the long rasp-like probably semi-prehensile 

 tail of Mus rex as compared with the smaller pads and 

 short smooth tail of Mus iniperator." 



This description well illustrates the fact of the import- 

 ance of insular faunas as showing us how species may be 

 modified under the least complex and therefore most easily 

 understood conditions. On a continent the modification 

 to an arboreal mode of life would have brought the species 

 into competition with a number of other arboreal organ- 

 isms, and would have exposed it to the attacks of a distinct 



