288 CORALS AND CORAL ISLANDS. 



generally basaltic or volcanic, and they are highly valued 

 among the natives for whetstones, pestles, and hatchets. The 

 logs are claimed by the chiefs for canoes. Some of the logs 

 seen by the author, like those at Enderby's Island, were forty 

 feet or more long. Several large masses of compact cellular 

 lava occur on Rose Island, a few degrees east of the Navigator 

 Group : they were lying two hundred yards inside of the line 

 of breakers. The island is uninhabited, and the origin of the 

 stones is doubtful; they may have been brought there by 

 roots of trees, or perhaps by some canoe. 



Fragments of pumice and resin are transported by the 

 waves to many of the islands in the Central Pacific. We 

 were informed at the Gilbert Islands that the pumice was 

 gathered from the shores by women and pounded up to fer- 

 tilize the soil of their taro patches ; and that it is common for 

 a woman to pick up a peck a day. 



Where this pumice comes from is not ascertained. It is 

 probably drifted from the westward, and perhaps from vol- 

 canic islands of the Ladrones or Philippines. In addition, 

 volcanic ashes are sometimes distributed over these islands, 

 through the atmosphere. In this manner the soil of the Tonga 

 Islands has been improved, and in some places it has even re- 

 ceived a reddish color. This group has its own active volcano 

 to supply the ashes, and the volcanic group of the New Heb- 

 rides is not far distant to the southwest. 



Notwithstanding all the products and all the attrac- 

 tions of a coral island, even in its best condition it is but a 

 miserable place for human development, physical, mental, or 

 moral. There is poetry in every feature, but the natives find 

 this a poor substitute for the breadfruit and yams of more 

 favored lands. The cocoanut and Pandanus are, in general, 

 the only products of the vegetable kingdom afforded for their 



