REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 149 



atoll and consists of a number of long and extremely narrow islands 

 on the reef flats. It is widest, about 600 yards, at the easternmost 

 point, where the village is situated, but elsewhere it is rarely a third 

 as wide. A large part of the land consists of coarse coral shingle 

 and rubble overgrown by an almost impenetrable scrub, but near 

 the village it has a more sandy soil, supporting a growth of cocoanut 

 trees. There is also in the vicinity of the village a slightly brackish 

 sink or shallow pool where taro is grown and whose verge supports a 

 few banana and breadfruit trees, the first that the expedition found 

 growing on an atoll. In 1897 a boring 1,100 feet deep was made at 

 Fongafale to determine the depth of the coral formation and the char- 

 acter of the underlying structure of the atoll. 



The population of Fongafale, which is the only inhabited island on 

 the atoll, is stated to be about 250, with a native government under 

 the protection of the British flag. The natives are all Christian and 

 extremely devout, Sunday being entirely devoted to religious observ- 

 ances and services at other times being frequent. On Sundays the 

 men dress in shirts and trousers and some wear coats, and the women 

 appear in loose flowing wrappers of cotton stuff and hats of a style 

 never seen elsewhere, but which are the pride of their owners and the 

 glory of Fongafale. On ordinary occasions the women wear nothing 

 but a short skirt of pandanus-leaf strips sewed to a waistband. 



The chief and one or two others have houses built of coral rock and 

 plaster upon European models, but the majority of the dwellings are of 

 native design, but of several tj^pes, as if extraneous influences had been 

 at work. The most common type, and the one probably indigenous to 

 the island, has a floor or platform over the whole or a large part of the 

 space occupied by the house, raised about 2 feet above the ground, a sort 

 of picket fence preventing the encroachment of pigs and dogs beneath. 

 Another type is without a platform, but the ground is covered with 

 a neat layer of white coral shingle and pebbles, over which mats are 

 spread when one wishes to sit or lie down. Houses of this character, 

 probably of Samoan origin, usually have no permanent walls, but a 

 sort of native "Venetian blind," made of broad mats of cocoanut leaves, 

 isarranged so that it may be raised or lowered as occasion requires. 



The natives of Funafuti are quite different in appearance from 

 those of the Fiji Islands, belonging to the Maori race, which inhabits 

 the islands to the eastward. During recent years, at least, they have 

 had considerable intercourse with the Samoans, whom they resemble 

 in appearance, and it is not improbable that the Ellice Islands were 

 populated by emigration from the Samoan Archipelago, which is dis- 

 tant between 500 and 600 miles. A Samoan teacher was present on 

 the island at the time of the visit of the Albatross, and so far as could 

 be judged his influence was paramount to that of the chief. The 

 natives were hospitable and kindly disposed, and exerted themselves 

 for the pleasure and entertainment of the members of the expedition. 

 With the exception of two Roman Catholic missionaries, who contem- 



