PREFACE. 



TTTHEN, in the beginning of 1881, H.M.S. "Lark" was 

 W being prepared for her commission as a surveying 

 ship in the Western Pacific, I was selected by Sir John Watt 

 Reid, the Medical Director-General of the Navy, to be ap- 

 pointed as Surgeon. For this selection I was also in some 

 measure indebted to the late Sir Frederick Evans, then 

 Hydrographer, who was desirous that a person possessing 

 tastes for natural history should be chosen. I subsequently 

 received some instructions from Dr. Guntlier, Keeper of 

 Zoology in the British Museum, to whom I may take this 

 opportunity of expressing my sincere thanks for the en- 

 couragement he gave to me during the comnjission. 

 Unfortunately there were no public funds from which I 

 could be assisted ; and, as a matter of fact, I may state that 

 all expenses had to come out of my pay as a naval surgeon. 

 At the close of the commission I received, mainly through 

 the influence of Dr. Gliiither, a promise of a grant of 

 £150 from the Royal Society of London for the exploration 

 of the interior of the large island of Guadalcanar; but a 

 very serious illness prevented me from carrying out my in- 

 tention, and thus an expedition, which I had looked 

 forward to as a fitting completion of my work in these 

 islands, was never undertaken. However, my disappoint- 

 ment was in some measure diminished on my arrival in 

 England, after being invalided, by the important results 

 arising frcm the examination by Dr. John Murray, Directoi" 

 of the Challenger Commission, of that portion of my 

 geoloorical collection which threw lio-ht on the formation of 

 coral reefs, and which exhibited the deep-sea deposits of the 

 Challenger Expedition as rocks composing islands in the 

 Solomon Group. To Dr. Murray I am indebted for much 

 kindness in many w^ays, and I gladly take this opportunity 

 of expressing my sincerest thanks. 



In this volume I have chiefly confined myself to my 

 observations on the anthropology, natural hiitory, botan}', 

 and meteorology of the group, having originally reserved my 



