Apams.— Polynesia. 53 
have an equally wide range. The canoes of the islanders are often made 
from trunks of trees found in the lagoons—a tree which once grew on the 
submerged land, and is a favorite with the natives of Tahiti and Fiji. The 
natives of Paumota call the wood tomano, and botanists have named it 
Calophyllum inophyllum. 
The lagoons of these islands are generally from 20 to 85 fathoms 
deep; a few like Hinden Island have shallow lagoons, and two at 
least, Metia and Clermont Tonnere, have been elevated, the former as 
high as 250 feet. Where, however, the lagoon is moderately deep there is 
another source of wealth to the island: the natives obtain, by diving, clams 
and mussels and pearl oysters, which are often their only animal food ; 
the pearl shell is collected for traders, and in many cases valuable pearls 
are found in it. The chief wealth of the lagoon is the trepang, or béche de 
mer, called also holothuria, an animal closely allied to the sea urchin and 
star-fish, with the roseate mouth and poisonous lassoes of the polyp. It is 
about one foot long, and in shape like a cucumber; a great part of the body 
is buried in the coral sand, and the mouth, in shape like a flower, protrudes. 
Itis said to feed upon the coral polyp, which flourish in great variety of 
form and colour to a depth of twelve fathoms near the sides of the lagoon. 
This animal exists in incredible numbers on the protected sides of reefs 
across the whole Pacifie, and Mr. Wallace describes the collecting and euring 
of it by the natives of Kiliware, near Ceram, in the same manner as it is 
carried on at the Paumotas for exportation to China. Long before 
Columbus diseovered America, Chinese ships frequented the islands of the 
Pacific to collect this article of food for their markets. The first European 
navigators found the trade of Chinese vessels for the tripang as fully 
established as at present. Both within and without the lagoon there are 
swarms of fish which feed on the polypifer. In the lagoon they are of 
various colours, but unfit for food as they are all said to be poisonous. 
Another article of trade is in turtle shell;—the animals are generally 
caught by the natives outside the lagoon, whilst sleeping on the surface of 
the water. The flesh furnishes them with a feast, and the shells are 
bartered with traders, and called in commerce, tortoise shell. 
A great many of the so-called charms of a lagoon island disappear when 
we enumerate all the good things they have, and calculate what they have 
not. There are no hills and valleys, no green fields or flowery meadows, 
no corn-fields or farmed lands; neither river nor stream, but, on the 
contrary, a great scarcity of fresh water, which is caught in large holes 
made in the coral rock during the rainy season, or in the hollowed stumps 
of cocoa-nut trees. Their only mineral is carbonate of lime, and the 
animals, if we except the sea birds, are represented by an enormous land 
