Natives of New Caledonia. 2I7 
tion in this sea. Their houses, or at least most of them, 
are circular, something like a beehive, and full as close and 
warm ; the entrance is’ by a small door, or long square hole 
just big enough to admit a man bent double; the side walls 
are about four feet and a half high, but the roof is lofty and 
peaked to a point at the top, above which is a post or stick of 
wood, which is generally ornamented with carving or shells, or 
both. Some houses have two floors, one above the other.. 
Land birds, indeed, are not numerous, but several are new.. 
One of these is a kind of crow—at least so we called it, though. 
it is not half so big, and its feathers are tinged with blue. They 
also have some very beautiful turtle-doves, and other small 
birds such as I never saw before.” Speaking of the appearance: 
of the country, he says, ‘‘ The plain or flat land which lies. 
aloug the shore appeared from the hills to a great advantage. 
The winding streams which ran through it, the plantations, the: 
little straggling villages, the variety in the woods and the shoals. 
on the'coasts so variegating the scene, that the whole might 
afford a picture for romance.—The mountains and other high. 
placesgare, for the most part, incapable of cultivation, consist-. 
ing chiefly of rocks, many of which are full of mundicks ; the- 
little soil which is upon them is scorched and burnt up with the 
sun; it is, nevertheless, coated with coarse grass and other: 
plants, and here and there trees and shrubs.” 
The natives of New Caledonia are superior in some respects: 
to those ‘of the New Hebrides. Their huts are better, and 
their canoes much larger. They have also the art of making 
that pottery, which is found on Santo alone of all the New 
Hebrides. They somewhat resemble the Tanamen, only, 
I should imagine, have more of the Papuan blood in them. 
They cultivate the yam and banana, and sugarcane, for food, 
as the New Hebrideans do, and they have pigs and fowls. 
The pigs Cook did not find on the island, as he did on the 
neighbouring group, and so he left several with them— 
