Report on the U.S. National Museum. 425 



on her return passage to the South American coast to call at Easter 

 Island, make certain investigations desired by the Smithsonian 

 Institution, and especially to bring away one of the colossal stone 

 imagesto be found upon the island. The stone image, stone crown, 

 and stone head having been successfully transported over the island 

 to the beach and thence transferred on board, the ship sailed on 

 the last day of the year for Valparaiso, Chile, arriving on 

 January 14th, 1887. There appears to be a misprint in the first 

 year recorded hei-e, for on p. 692 the author says : " The 

 investigations upon which this report is based cover a period of 

 twelve days from December 19 to December 30, 1886, inclusive." 



On December 18th the extinct crater of Eana Kao was visited, 

 and a general inspection was made of the stone huts, the painted 

 slabs in their interior, the sculptured rocks, etc., and of the crater 

 itself, in the immediate vicinity of which these objects of interest are 

 located. Here numerous finished and unfinished images, some 

 standing, others prostrate, were seen scattered over the slope of 

 the crater and the great plain at its base, where there is every 

 reason to believe once stood a populous town. The quarries, or 

 ' workshops,' were also visited, and the many partly completed 

 monoliths still attached to the original rock were examined. As in 

 Egypt, where in the quarries at Syene, near the First Cataract, 

 the largest obelisk still lies unfinished, so here, in one of the 

 excavations on the outer slope of the crater, may be seen the largest 

 of the stone images to be found on Eapa Nui in an incomplete 

 condition, still adherent to the bed rock, and measuring 69 ft. 9 in. 

 in length ! carved in trachyte. Mr. Salmon and Mr. Brander 

 seem at present to be the sole proprietors on the island, with 

 a stock of 18,000 head of sheep and many cattle. The population 

 now consists of 155 natives and 11 foreigners (two English, two 

 Americans, one Frenchman, and six Tahitans), yet from 1850 to 

 1860 the number of inhabitants was said to be 20,000. In 1863 the 

 Peruvians carried off 5,000 of the inhabitants to work the guano 

 deposits of the Chincha Islands. Some few only of these returned 

 alive, smallpox having broken out on the return voyage ; it also 

 ravaged the island, many deaths resulting therefrom. 



With regard to the ancient inhabitants— the makers of the trachyte 

 quarries, the builders of the stone houses, and the carvers of the 

 colossal stone images — the number and extent of their works are 

 so great that one is led to ask how they came suddenly to an end, 

 which must have been the case judging by the large number of 

 images in all stages of development seen at Eana Eoraka, where 

 the ancient town once existed, and in the quarries in an unfinished 

 condition both inside and outside of the adjacent crater slopes. The 

 present natives neither carve, nor quarry stone, nor build. 



If we take note of the vast number of volcanic stones evenly 

 scattered over the surface of the island, especially the eastern half, 

 one is led to the inevitable conclusion that either the volcano of 

 Eana Eoraka, or one of the neighbouring volcanoes, suddenly became 

 active and threw out these showers of stones, probably destroying 



