THE CAROLINE ISLANDS 549 



Lele, remarkable for possessing ruins which appear to be 

 very similar to those on Ponape, which we shall pre- 

 sently describe. Captain Cyprian Bridge speaks of them 

 as forming a sort of fortress with cyclopean walls of large 

 basaltic blocks, and there are also numerous canals and 

 presumably artificial harbours. 



Ponape, a rugged and mountainous island more or less 

 circular in shape, and having a diameter of about 16 

 miles, is thickly wooded, and some of its trees attain a 

 very large size. It has a population of 2500 living on 

 the seaboard, but the interior is quite uninhabited. A 

 coral reef extends round the island at about three miles 

 from the shore, with nine openings, forming a number of 

 excellent harbours. The climate is excessively equable, 

 the extreme range of the thermometer during three years 

 being only 19°, the mean temperature being 80^°. The 

 trade winds blow for the greater part of the year ; violent 

 storms, as well as electrical disturbances, are rare ; and 

 rain falls more or less all the year round. The celebrated 

 Malayan fruit, the durian, has been introduced here with 

 success, and the vegetable-ivory nut flourishes. The soil 

 is very fertile, but its surface in many parts is so 

 covered with stones as to be unworkable. These con- 

 sist almost entirely of regular basaltic prisms, and in 

 their abundance and evident suitability for building pur- 

 poses we have possibly two reasons to account for the 

 extraordinary ruins on the eastern side of the island 

 which have puzzled so many travellers. 



The ruins of Metalanium are situated at the mouth of 

 the port of that name, upon innumerable islets of the 

 coral reef, distant about a mile or more from the main- 

 land. They consist of one main building, which has a 

 more or less central position in the midst of a vast 

 number of other constructions whose raison d'etre it is 



