LAVA STATUES 193 



inhabitants, while the fauna and flora, such as 

 they are, have never been collected. 



There are now two Easter Island images in 

 the British Museum. The images, we judged, 

 are on an average at least twenty feet 

 in height, while some of them are probably 

 considerably more. They have been hewn out 

 of the lava in one or more of the craters on 

 the island. In one of the smaller of these 

 craters, Major Wilbraham saw several statues in 

 an unfinished condition, the features being carved 

 on the surface of the lava. It would seem, 

 therefore, that the outline of the statue was first 

 carved, and that the block of lava was afterwards 

 cut out and carried by some unknown means 

 down to the coast, where it was set upright, facing 

 the sea. 



Apparently all these images are alike in general 

 appearance. The carving is rough: it represents 

 a human face with a very large and prominent 

 nose, a rather protruding mouth, a pointed chin, 

 the forehead narrow, and the brows beetling. 

 (Fig. 1.)* 



Each statue is mounted on a platform of loose 

 blocks of lava, and these platforms seem to be 

 ancient burial-places. All the stones with 

 which the platforms are built are of the size of a 

 man's head, perhaps slightly larger, and they are 



* This and the following seven figures are from rough drawings 

 made by Major Wilbraham during our visit. 



