1242 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



system becomes acclimatized comparatively good health may be enjoyed with ordinary 

 care. At all events, some of the traders resident in the Group have been able to remain 

 there for a considerable number of years. The rain-fall is very heavy, and few vessels 

 will get through the Group, especially during the north-west monsoon, without ex- 

 periencing some of the drenching rain-storms which are so characteristic of these Islands. 

 The annual rain-fall on the coast is about one hundred and fifty inches, and on the higher 

 lands of the large Island it is probably at least double that amount. The range of 

 temperature is not great, being only about twenty degrees. The maximum is not more 

 than ninety-eight degrees, but seldom, if ever, lower than seventy degrees. The mean 

 temperature for the year will be about eighty-one degrees or eighty-two degrees. The 

 south-east trade-winds are fairly regular from May to November. During the intervening 

 months the north-west winds prevail, and are often accompanied by very severe squalls 

 and much rain, but there are no hurricanes as in the eastern groups. It may be 

 noticed that the general opinion of old residents and sailors here, as in Eastern Poly- 

 nesia also, is that the trade-winds are not at all so regular now as they were observed 

 to be some years ago. 



The formation of most of the Islands, so far as is known, is light-gray coralline 

 limestone, overlying, in many places, a base of old volcanic rock. The whole region seems 

 to be one of upheaval, and a close observation of some of the features of the Islands 

 recently made by Dr. Guppy, of H.M.S. Lark, have apparently confirmed those made 

 by Dr. Murray, of H.ALS. Challenger, and others, which go far to disprove the general 

 applicability of the theory of Darwin as to the process by which coral islands have been 

 formed. On Treasury Island the coral is found encrusted upon a volcanic peak which 

 has been raised more than a thousand feet, and at Santa Anna the rim of the atoll 

 has been raised some hundreds of feet above the present sea-level. The same forma- 

 tions are also to be found in the large islands of New Britain and New Ireland. The 

 only true chalk yet found south of the Equator has been met with in the latter of 

 these islands. It is cut out of the hill-sides inland, and far above the present 

 level of the sea. 



The people are of the sub-Papuan race, but vary a good deal in appearance in the 

 different islands. The general characteristics, however, are : average height of men, five 

 feet four inches, the women being about five feet ; colour, a sooty-brownish black ; hair 

 tufted generally, but sometimes crispy ; projecting brws with deeply sunk eyes, short 

 nose depressed at root, thickish lips, and a receding chin. The men are bright and 

 intelligent, learn to speak English readily, and when away from home make good 

 workers. The women have pleasing features when young, but soon lose their good looks 

 as they grow older. The chiefs have no absolute power as in Eastern Polynesia, nor 

 is the title hereditary. A son does not necessarily succeed his father as chief. If he 

 has plenty o money, and possesses many bewitching spells, and is also a brave or 

 cunning warrior, he will succeed to the position, but not otherwise. Gorai, of the Short- 

 land Group, is perhaps the only chief in the Solomons whose power or influence is like 

 that possessed by an Eastern Polynesian chief. Cannibalism is practised amongst most 

 of the tribes. The origin of the custom cannot be attributed to the scarcity of animal 

 food. The natives eat the bodies of their enemies principally because they thus gratify 



