144 PERCY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION. 
area resembling somewhat the tidal pool found in the main island at Funafuti before 
its elevation *. The land, once probably much more extensive, is now almost entirely 
of sand formation, with dunes varying up to 75 feet in height. Probably, as suggested 
in the ‘ Admiralty Sailing Directions,’ it practically owes its existence to elevation, but 
the evidence on the spot was not very clear. Although the islands are so close to 
Madagascar, the plants were again the same as those at Chagos and Coetivy. The — 
coconuts of North Island had been nearly all blown down by a hurricane in 1893, but 
were still growing, having bent up through an angle of 90°, leaving 10 to 15 feet of 
their stems lying prone on the ground. Near them were great groves of Casuarina, and 
some of the land had been cleared for maize. The land animals of course followed the 
Fig. 38. 
Sand-dune on South Island, Farquhar. Tournefortia bushes to right. 
plants, doves ( Turtur picturatus) being additions near the settlement and brilliant green 
lizards in the groves of papaya which had run wild in North Island. 
The islands have a population of about 130 people (56 males), all settled in a single 
village near the anchorage. They work partially on the coconut-plantations of the 
north half of North Island, which they are extending, but go out also in pirogues for 
fish and turtle. Formerly the latter were very abundant, but now are gradually 
decreasing in number. No doubt they are preyed on by sharks and rays to a considerable 
extent, but their greatest enemy is man, who kills them just as they come up to breed. 
According to the manager, Mr. Rey, the shelled variety often returns to the same spot 
on the beach three or four times before it lays its eggs, and few escape after the second 
. 
* Vide Gardiner, loc. cit.; also ‘The Atoll of Funafuti,” Trans. Roy. Soc. (1904). 
