734 SECOND VISIT TO NEW BRITAIN. 



Unless some epidemic should come to decimate the population, the future welfare 

 of the Lifu natives seems to he insured by the poverty of the land. No primary rocks 

 occur at any part of the island, which consists entirely of coralline limestone with patches 

 of arable soil, capable of producing a certain amount of food to support a population of 

 about 7,000, which number appears to remain fairly constant. 



I finally left Noumea for Sydney by way of Esafate or Sandwich Island in the New 

 Hebrides on March 28th, 1897. A few days after my arrival for the second time in 

 Sydney, I despatched the following cable to Professor Alfred Newton, F.R.S., Chairman 

 of the Balfour Managers : — " No stages, shall I spend rest of year New Britain ? " to which 

 I received an affirmative reply. Accordingly I set about making preparations for a fresh 

 campaign in New Britain, the principal addition to my apparatus being a nest of seven 

 large hencoops, which were made according to my instructions at the Blind Asylum in 

 Sydney. 



I now pass on to the concluding episode of my voyage. I landed in New Britain 

 for the second time on June 16th, 1897, and on the following day one of my former crew, 

 To-lara by name, came to see me and agreed to serve with me again. This gave me an 

 important start; I revisited my old haunts in Blanche Bay without delay, and having 

 fitted out my Sydney cages, I stocked them with Nautilus-covtples as soon as I could 

 procure them. Very shortly I commenced to find the eggs of Nautilus pompilius 

 attached to the sacking round the sides of the cages, hardly distinguishable from those 

 of N. macromphalus at Lifu. My hopes revived, but I soon found that the eggs fared 

 no better in Blanche Bay at a depth of 30 — 50 fathoms. No development took place, 

 and in course of time the vitellus commenced to undergo liquefaction and decomposition. 

 I continued my efforts, at the same time accumulating collateral material, until the 

 following September, when I bade adieu to New Britain, and thus terminated my long 

 quest. 



