183 
“The official incididun proceeds to give a glowing account of 
the fertility and riehness* of the whole colony, of the abundant water 
and of t 
— he e success attained in the “gene — 
e fauna of the island is remarkably poor in mammals, very rich 
in birds, Beasts of prey and poisonous vile s are unknow T 
natives rear pigs and dogs, but no osha domestic animals were known 
till the arrival of the Germans. 
* Cotton Crops.—The cotton crops on the Gazelle Peninsula were 
gocd, and of excellent quality. In the Herbertshóhe plantations, 60 
bales (about 25,000 lbs.) were ready for exportation in July, 1895 ; in 
the Ralum plantation, 120 bales (41,000 Ibs.), and the crop was by no 
means ingathered when the report was written.” 
VI.—MamsHarr ISLANDS. 
This remote group of islands is situated almost a the ori s the 
Pac It is of very slight commercial importance, but the account 
given of a m to Nauru by ihe Imperial paeran Mi tha some 
facts. of interest. 
ÉDRG ‘hi ief occupation of the natives is the collection and prepara- 
tion of copes the cane TU of the archipelago. "They are excellent 
fisherme p 
and swim men make preserves, mats, and other 
such artic Miay: “of the men have become very serviceable sailors, 
so much so that the vessels of the Jaluit Company, with the exception 
of the captains and pilots, are exclusively manned by the Marshall 
PE ge The boldness of the crews of the native schooner beige 
n the open seas without M nautical instruments, by the help of the 
poses primitive and, to ropeans, unintelligible of nautical charts, 
satisfactory, though even here an improvement is visible. Want of 
lication and perseverance is, after all, a necessary outcome of the 
nomad oe they have hitherto led. 
old patriarchal system still prevails amongst the natives, On 
i other band, by contact with the whites, they have lost many of 
their primitive originalities, most of all in ' Jaluit, where the old- 
fashioned grass-coats and hair-tufts are now seldom to be seen. The 
old war-drums of sharks-skins, formerly beaten by the native women, 
curiosities. The natives of the Rataks, of the northern Raliks, and 
especially of Nauru, have kept up more of the old habits and customs, 
and the love of fighting. The fact that peace has been maintained, in 
ais of this feeling, throughout the colony is a: not so much to a 
change in. the native character, as to a whole series of regulations, 
amongst which, in the foremost. place, should be es the prohibi- 
tion of the sale of arms and spirits. Another measure which has tended 
greatly to preserving the peace is the decree forbidding the selling of 
goods to natives on credit. 
* The price of food-stuffs is high, due to the remoteness of the islands, 
the dearness e labour, and to the hitherto prevalent system of 
allowing long cre 
& Products ithe indigenous products of the islands were limited to 
cocoa and other n SA ena s, bread-fruit, taro, arrowroot, bananas, 
tives are euni ing the value of the bananas and melons, but 
the place once held by the cocoa-tree as the staff of life is being gradually 
