106 FUNAFUTI 



the forest bearing large heart-shaped leaves and heavy 

 tacemes of lilac flowers. 



The great robber-crab (Birgus) , which feeds on cocoanuts 

 and pandanus fruit, is at home here, and may be seen climb- 

 ing the cocoa-palms by night. Other land crabs scramble 

 through the fallen palm-leaves which thickly strew the 

 ground. Many of these are of the hermit kind, and one 

 of them has a curious habit of croaking like a frog when 

 captured. But no part of the island is free from land 

 crabs ; like rats and mice, they are the universal 

 scavengers ; they undermined our house, attacked our 

 tinned provisions, and we could not sit down to eat 

 a cocoanut without some of these weird creatures 

 gathering round to pick up the fallen crumbs. 



As we continue our passage across the sand, the 

 scene rapidly, even abruptly, changes its aspect ; the 

 place of the forest so rich and varied is taken by a 

 grotesque growth of " Nya " trees, whose stubborn con- 

 torted trunks, strangely at variance with their dainty 

 foliage, bar the way ; struggling through these, one 

 enters upon a savage plain, "horrid" with rugged 

 fragments of blackened coral, and cumbered here and 

 there with huge boulders of coral rock some tons in 

 weight.* At low water this desolate region is dry and 

 burns in the sun, but as the tide rises sea-water oozes up 

 through holes in the ground and covers it with shallow 

 pools. Few animals live in this desert ; spiders, that 

 infest the " Nya" trees, and mosquitos, that lie greedily 

 in wait by day as well as night, are the chief that I bear 

 in mind. Proceeding lengthwise along this plain, which 

 lies in the middle of the island, it broadens out and 

 passes into a muddy swamp, planted by the natives with 

 taro, a delicious substitute for potatoes, and bananas, 

 which one still reflects upon with pleasure ; their fruit 

 * One of these measured 6 feet by 5 feet by 4 feet. 



