458 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPIIY AND TRAVEL 



value of the year's export of these metals and their ores 

 as follows: — Nickel, £143,804; silver lead, £26,145; 

 cobalt, £11,338 ; chrome, £11,336 ; and copper, £6219. 



New Caledonia differs from all the other islands of 

 Melanesia in its drier and cooler climate. It is said to 

 be healthier than France, and the weather has been 

 described as a perpetual spring with a moderately hot 

 summer of four months' duration. The rainy season is 

 irregular and ill-defined, but the rains fall chiefly during 

 the first six months of the year. The average annual 

 fall at Noumea is 70 inches. On the east coast, where 

 the mountain slopes are exposed to the prevailing wind, 

 the rains are more frequent and heavier. Cyclones 

 occur, but fortunately not often, as they cause enormous 

 damage to the plantations. The flora is rich and peculiar, 

 over 1100 dicotyledons being known, but the character 

 of the vegetation diflfers very much according to the 

 locality. Much of the island is bare and arid-looking, 

 or partially clothed with bushes and mast-like pines 

 (Araucaria CooJcii). In the north only, and on some of 

 the mountain sides, is there any extent of forest country. 

 The sandal-wood, once plentiful, has almost disappeared, 

 but there are many fine timber trees, among them the 

 kauri. The aromatic niauli {Melaleuca viridiflora) is 

 closely alKed to the cajuput-yielding tree of Buru, and 

 affords a similar valuable oil. 



The fauna shows great deficiency in mammalian life. 

 A single Ptewpus is found, but terrestrial mammals 

 seem to be confined to a rat, which is probably an intro- 

 duced species. Eeptiles are very few. The affinities of 

 the group are not very evident. Mr. E. L. Layard con- 

 siders that the coijnection is on the whole greater with 

 Australia than with New Zealand. The avifauna cer- 

 tainly shows this ; the genera Trichoglossus, Artamus, 



