444 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



]30ssess of the group. The islands are nearly everywhei'e 

 covered with fine forests, the vegetation being described 

 as unnsually luxuriant and beautiful, even as compared 

 with the other islands of the Pacific. The forest-trees 

 are magnificent, and tree-ferns of 30 or 40 feet high 

 abound. Besides sandal-wood, ebony and lignum-vitse 

 grow, and from the fruit of Parinarium laurinuvi, one of 

 the Chrysobalanea?, a resin is obtained which is everywhere 

 used for the caulking of canoes. Thirteen palms are 

 known, of which no less than six are Arecas. The 

 Banyans are equally well represented. The islands form 

 the limit of many of the peculiar animal forms of New 

 Guinea. Mammals are few. The common Cuscus is the 

 only marsupial, but there are seventeen bats, of which six 

 are peculiar to the group. There are four indigenous rats, 

 of which two discovered -by Mr. Woodford are of extra- 

 ordinary size, being nearly two feet in length. In the 

 avifauna the paradise-birds are wanting, but many dis- 

 tinctly Moluccan and Papuan genera occur, such as Lorius, 

 JVasiterna, Gcoffroyus, and Eos among the parrots, Dicceum, 

 Graucalus, Centropus, Macro'pygia, and others. Of seven- 

 teen species of lizards, seven are peculiar to the group, 

 and five of eleven snakes ; but this individuality is perhaps 

 best exhibited in the frogs, of which of thirteen species 

 no less than eleven are peculiar. Among them is the 

 enormous Eana guppyi, which attains a weight of between 

 2 and 3 lbs. ; and the group is otherwise remarkable as 

 affording a new family — the Ceratobatrachidse — peculiar 

 in having both jaws toothed. Such distinct forms prove 

 the insularity of the Solomons to have been established 

 at a very remote period. 



The natives of the Solomon Islands exhibit consider- 

 able variation both in physical characteristics and customs, 

 the people of Bougainville Island, for example, differing 



