480 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



viously mentioned. The trough was about thirty feet long, and 

 carved to represent a crocodile. Twenty -two men were seated on 

 each side of the trough, and an old man at either end. They had 

 all their ornaments on, and wore their shields over their shoulders, 

 while their spears and tomahawks were close behind them. The 

 food, consisting of taro, yams, and nuts, was placed in the trough, 

 and the men sat ready. An old man in full fighting rig was then 

 seen advancing toward the house. Walking up to the entrance, he 

 suddenly started back and raised his spear, exclaiming, " Basioto ! " 

 (" A crocodile ! ") and standing on the defensive. Ingova then ad- 

 vanced from the interior of the house, and, placing one hand on 

 the crocodile's head, began a speech which lasted about ten min- 

 utes. At a given signal the men began pounding the food, all of 

 them keeping excellent time. When they got tired or hot they 

 were relieved by others, and the pounding was continued for over 

 half an hour. I was then asked to go, and, not wishing to offend 

 them, I did so. 



[On another occasion the author had walked with some natives 

 from Aola, on the coast of Guadalcanar, to a town called Kobua, 

 situated on the river of that name, and about four miles inland.] 

 While walking along the river-bank with my men we heard a 

 number of natives approaching, shouting and making a great 

 noise. I was told they were coast natives returning from a raid 

 upon a mountain town. My men all stood on the defensive with 

 their spears ready poised, and I got my revolver ready, but they 

 proved to be friends. They were very proud of their victory, 

 and told me that they had killed one man and got one alive. I 

 saw the dead man's hand and a piece of flesh carried in triumph 

 by one of them on his spear. I did not see the prisoner, and I was 

 glad to hear afterward that he had escaped. It is these constant 

 raids of the coast natives upon the bushmen, and retaliatory ones 

 on the part of the bushmen upon the coast natives, that render it 

 difficult and dangerous to penetrate any distance into the interior. 

 I had been over three months at Aola before I could induce the 

 natives to accompany me into the interior, during which time 

 I had surveyed all the lower coast of the rivers in the neighbor- 

 hood. 



[A typical illustration of the vegetation of the islands is fur- 

 nished in the picture of the sago palms (Fig. 3) on the Bokokimbo 

 River, a stream which runs down from the mountains of the inte- 

 rior.] The vegetation [the author says] is here most luxuriant, 

 and composed of large ficus and other large forest trees, with occa- 

 sional clumps of sago and areca palms, but few cocoanuts. The 

 river was ascended and surveyed for about ten miles, for the whole 

 of which it runs through a rich alluvial flat, densely wooded. 



[Valemanga, where the author stopped in an attempt to make 



