1292 



A USTRALASIA ILL USTKA TED. 



and longitude one hundred and sixty-four east, together with the small Isle of Pines, and 

 the islets in its neighbourhood. The Island itself is one hundred and ninety miles long 

 and thirty miles wide, trending north-west and south-east. French rule is acknowledged 

 over the Islands of Lifu, Mare and Uvea, forming the Loyalty Group, but the area 

 of New Caledonia is more than double that of all the other French territory in these 

 parts, comprising a superficial extent of some three million seven hundred and live thou- 

 sand acres. The main Island differs also from the rest of the Group in the fact that 

 while most of the smaller islets are of the usual low coral growth, with their surfaces 



almost on a level with 

 the sea, New Caledonia 

 is of volcanic origin, and 

 at first sight from the 

 sea would seem to con- 

 sist almost entirely of a 

 series of lofty moun- 

 tains of wild and savage 

 aspect. These moun- 

 tains are of serpentine 

 formation, and their 

 peculiar dome-like shape 

 and strange r u d d y 

 colour are very charac- 

 teristic of the scenery 

 of this Island. It is en- 

 tirely surrounded by a 

 barrier reef of coral for- 

 mation. Following the dip of the ground on the main-land, which slopes more gradually on 

 the west coast, this reef is several miles away on that side, while on the east, where the 

 slope is more rapid, it lies much nearer the shore. A pass or opening is found in front 

 of the principal rivers, and the traveller entering one of these for 'the first time cannot 

 fail to be struck by the character and beauty of the scenery. The pale green of the 

 calm and shallow lagoon, flecked with the strange triangular-shaped sails of the native 

 canoes, is separated from the tumultuous roll of the outside sea only by a curling white 

 fringe of foam, marking where the long wash of the Pacific breaks on the narrow 

 barrier of coral. The quiet lagoon is one of the principal fishing-grounds of the natives, 

 and the bright water is rich with all the magical charm of life and colour, in fish, or 

 shell, or coral, that forms the allurement and fascination of these tropical seas. A fore- 

 ground of shore, lined with dark-green patches of forest and mangroves concealing the 

 mouths of the Island rivers, is thrown out against a n's/s/tr/icc of purple upland broken 

 by depths of blue, through which the folding hills can be seen billowing away in the 

 farthest distance. Now and then along the shore the waving tops of cocoa-nut palms 

 distinguish the villages of the native people. A mountain range runs down the full 

 length of the Island, throwing off spurs which in some places run in rugged ridges to 

 the water's edge. The east coast shows the most striking instances of this, and the 



NEW CALEDONIAN CONVICTS MAKING ROADS. 



