134 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



happiness in the possession of land, which results in the community being composed 

 of a large number of small landowners. The effect of this is, of course, to minimize 

 the amount of labor that can be hired, with the direct consequence that large holders 

 are rare and that application of capital would be handicapped by the dearth of labor. 

 While this seems to offer something of a barrier to material productiveness, it is a 

 very wholesome trait, which it is to be hoped will hold its own against outside 

 influences. a 



Means of communication. — Transportation is effected by boats as 

 well as by means of oxen, cows, and buffaloes. (PI. XXII.) Owing 

 to the difficulties met with in crossing the mountainous interior of the 

 southern portion of the island, especially in the rainy season, when the 

 roads are slippery and dangerous, transportation from the vicinity of 

 Inalahan, on the east coast, to Agana, on the west coast, is often car- 

 ried on in boats, the small ba} T of Hahahyan, at the southern end c^ the 

 island, being used as a landing place for that region. This bay can be 

 entered only b} r boats of moderate size. The journe} T from Agana to 

 Merizo is also much easier by sea than by land, and boats are used 

 whenever articles of considerable bulk are to be transported between 

 the two points. 



There are only three good roads on the island. Tbe best is that 

 leading from Punta Piti, the landing place of the port to Agana, the 

 capital, which continues northward to Apurguan, the site of the late 

 village of Maria Cristina, inhabited by Caroline Islanders. This fol- 

 lows the west coast of the island throughout its entire extent and is 

 almost level. Another road leads from the landing place at Apra, on 

 the south shore of the harbor of San Luis, to the village of Agat, and 

 from this road there is a third branching off to the village of Sumai, 

 on the peninsula of Orote. 



There is a road across the island at its narrowest part, from Agana 

 to Pago, which can be traversed only on foot or on the backs of ani- 

 mals. During the administration of Don Pablo Perez, who made use 

 of convict labor to cany on the public works of the island, this road 

 was for the first time made passable for carts, which fact is duly 

 recorded on a tablet in a small shed erected on the crest of a hill about 

 halfway across the island. Now it is impossible for a cart to cross 

 the island by means of this road, and in the rainy season parts of it 

 are so boggy that it is almost impassable with pack animals. The 

 road from Punta Piti to Agat, which passes around the margin of the 

 harbor of San Luis, is so bad in places that it is f requentl}' impassable 

 on horseback. For crossing boggy places and passing muddy fords 

 oxen and buffaloes are found to be much more efficient steeds than 

 horses on account of their natural propensity for wading. From 

 Agat to Merizo, the village at the southern extremity of the island, 

 the road is interrupted in several places by abrupt headlands, which 

 must either be rounded by entering the sea or crossed by very steep 



« Governor Schroeder's report, in Report of the Secretary of the Navy for the year 

 1901, pp. 82-83. 



