NIUE, OB SAVAGE ISLAND. 25 



or pools that the natives used formerly to collect the 

 stalagmites, which they made use of as projectiles in their 

 combats and which they adroitly threw without the aid 

 of a sling. 



The layer of vegetable earth which lies on the coral is 

 almost everj'where from five to six feet in depth, and 

 appeared to me much more fertile than the missionary had 

 led me to suppose. It grows the cocoanut-tree, the guava, 

 the orange-tree, the banana, plantain, and the melon ; all, 

 except the first which is indigenous, are of recent introduc- 

 tion into the island. Among other vegetable products I 

 may notice the yam, arrowroot, sugar-cane, and taro ; I 

 also met with a white pea growing wild. There exists but 

 one indigenous mammifer in the island, a small rodent of a 

 size between a water-rat and a mouse. I must not, how- 

 ever, pass over a great bat which I saw flying at a remark- 

 able height. With the exception of fowls, which are reared 

 everywhere, there are but few birds ; among them are 

 pigeons or doves of a green colour, parrots, a pretty little 

 green bird Avith white feathers under the tail, a small 

 martin or swallow, the tropic bird or the boatswain, whose 

 tail feathers are used to make elegant fly-brushes, the 

 handles of which are neatly l)ound round with plaited 

 human hair. I had not time to make any observations 

 respecting the fish, but I noticed quantities of shai'ks con- 

 stantly accompanied by their little pilots, and beautiful small 

 fish about an inch long, of the deepest blue colour, but 

 which I could not succeed in catching among the rocks by 



