324 AUSTRALASIA. 



Polynesian are intermingled with Papuasian forms in the Solomon Islands, which lie 

 on the borders of the two zoological domains. According to native report anthro- 

 poid apes still survive in the large islands of Malaita, Guadalcanar and San 

 Cristobal ; but they have never been seen by any European zoologists, who have 

 met no indigenous mammals except the pig, the dog, and a small species of rat. 

 Of birds the pigeon is the most common and the chief agent in the dispersion of 

 plants. Powell asserts that in the volcanic islands the megapodius (brush turkey) 

 often lays its eggs in the fissures of the rocks emitting hot vapours. 



The reptiles, so poorly represented in most oceanic islands, are somewhat 

 numerous in the Solomons, and several species are even peculiar to the Mela- 

 nesian Archipelagoes. Specially noteworthy are the enormous toads, which were 

 formerly worshipped with snakes in the island of Yzabel. Crocodiles, still 

 venerated by the islanders, abound on the coastlands, and live both in salt and 

 fresh water. They are little dreaded, and according to the local legend are 

 dangerous only to unfaithful wives. The Solomon Archipelago marks the 

 easternmost limit in the range of these saurians, which are not met again till 

 the American continent is reached. 



Inhabitants of North Melanesia. 



The Melanesians belong undoubtedly to the same stock as the New Guinea 

 Papuans, although representatives also occur amongst them both of the Malay 

 and Polynesian types. A Micronesian enclave is also found in the little 

 Exchequer group», consisting of some fifty isles and islets. San Cristobal, in the 

 Solomon Archipelago, is probably the land pointed to as the cradle of their race 

 in the legends of the South-Sea Islanders. This land of Puro, which was indi- 

 cated to the pilot Queiros as the original home of the Oceanic tribes, and which 

 Hale sought to identify with the island of Buru in the Moluccas, would seem 

 much more probably to have been Baura, that is, the island whose name the 

 Spaniards afterwards changed to San Cristobal. 



But however this be, the prevailing features amongst the inhabitants of the 

 seaboard in the Admiralty, Bismarck, and Solomon groups are those of the 

 Melanesian or Papuan type. The tribes of the interior, often spoken of as bush- 

 men, are very little known ; but certain indications would seem to impl}^ that the 

 Negrito element is largely represented amongst them. The legend of tailed men 

 said to live in the interior of New Britain is widespread. A great variety of 

 idioms prevails throughout the archipelagoes, although, so far as is known, all 

 would appear to be derived from a common source. 



The North Melanesians are for the most part of mean height and well-propor- 

 tioned, with a deep brown or blackish complexion and abundant frizzly or crisp 

 hair. The finest group are those of Bougainville, who surpass all the others in 

 stature and strength, but who are also of a darker colour and distinguished by their 

 brachycephalic or round heads. The same form of the skull, however, prevails 

 amongst many other Melanesians, a fact first placed beyond doubt by Miklukho 



