656 The American Naturalist. [July, 
extend its rule over all unclaimed islands in the Eastern Pacific. This 
gives Germany the Admiralty Isles, New Hanover, New Ireland, New 
Britain, the Solomon Archipelago, the Gilbert or Kingsmill Islands, 
the Ellice and the Phoenix groups, also the Samoan and ‚Tongan. 
Complications, as is well known, have already arisen over the Samoan 
Island, and, as the German fleet in Pacific waters is by no means 
sufficient to enforce the proper treatment of white men by the natives 
of all these scattered groups, trouble may be expected in other quar- 
ters. No power but Germany has a right to interfere to enforce order 
in any of these islands, except as circumstances may compel modifica- 
tions. 
The Carolines.—A recently published work upon the Caroline 
Islands gives the results of the studies of J. S. Kubary in the Caroline 
group, which he first visted in 1868, as agent for the Godeffroy Mus- 
eum at Hamburg. The group lies between five and ten degrees of 
north latitude, and stretches from 130 to 160 of east longitude. The 
population is rapidly diminishing, largely on account of the hiring of 
native labor by the whites. The current cash of these islands is for 
the most part formed of shells, and the natives are very particular in 
limiting each kind to its special purpose. Thus in Vap equal-sized 
disks made out the shells of the Spondylus, and polished, form a money 
not in use among the general public, but accumulated by the chiefs to 
_ purchase canoes or weapons to resist or attack. The Spondylus is only 
found in the east and north of the island of Yap, is used on this and 
some other isles, and is traditionally the oldest form of money—it oc- 
curs in old graves of the Ladrone chiefs. The next most valuable 
money consists of disks of arragonite, obtained from the due 
Islands. These are called pa/an, and are known as “ men's money.’ 
A third variety, formed of small threaded nacreous shells, is called 
yar, and known as ** women's money.’ 
In the Pelew Islands beads, called andouth, and probably obtained 
by trading, form the currency. Each variety of bead has a different 
value, and payments are made in specifically prescribed forms. Thus 
forty to fifty beads that are in the hands of one or two of the kings 
have a value representing £10 to £12 each. If a debtor does not 
possess the correct money in which to make payment, he has to borrow 
the right kind. Herr Kubary believes that this system must have been 
acquired from the Malayan States. There is a strong diversity between 
the textile arts, the methods of tattooing, the stature, the appearance, 
and the general physical characters of the natives of contiguous islands 
in this group. 
