356 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



what they make by selling copra of which at one time 

 they exported a thousand tons a year, quite a profit for 

 the couple of hundred inhabitants of the place, but of 

 late the palm trees have not done so well and the natives 

 have had a hard time. Fortunately there are no end of 

 fish here, and they get plenty to eat. 



The French flag was floating over " the Palace " of 

 the Gendarmerie, occupied as we found by a single brig- 

 adier who has lived here five years and seems perfectly 

 satisfied with his lot and says so ! Yet he appears like quite 

 an intelligent person ; he is the only white man of the 

 place, and has no one to spend his time with. As usual 

 he has a native wife, and that 's a bad chain for a man 

 to have round his neck here. If there are children, it 

 means he must end his days here in the South Pacific. 



Yesterday and to-day I have been spending my time 

 examining this atoll, so different from any I had ever 

 seen, but still a fine specimen of the kind which had 

 always been thrown at me ; and though I have not yet 

 got through with this one, yet it looks as if I now would 

 have the chance to throw this kind of atoll at the other 

 side. I am beginning to see daylight, and hope to 

 get a sketch outline of the atoll to-morrow, which will 

 make everything very simple, to me at least. We have 

 been taking no end of photographs at this place, for 

 being my first shot I am bound to illustrate it fully. 

 You will find on the chart of the Paumotus a sketch of 

 this atoll which looks like a pear and is about sixteen 

 fathoms deep, full of rocks at the handle end. With 

 the exception of a few scrub trees there are only bushes 

 and palm trees and no water except what soaks through 

 the soil — that is very little. If the rest of the group is 

 as plain sailing a thing as this atoll, it will not be a 



