Geography and Travel. 631 
THE Sotomon IsLaAnDs.—The Solomons lie about five hundred 
miles east of New Guinea, and extend for six hundred miles north- 
west and southeast, between the meridians of 154° and 163° E 
longitude, and the parallels of 5° and 11° S. latitude. They were 
discovered and named by the Spaniard Mendana, in 1567. There 
are seven principal islands (Bougainville, Choiseul, Ysabel, Malayta, 
San Christoval, Guadalcanar, New Georgia) and several smaller 
ones. The total area of the group is estimated by Mr. ©. 
Woodford, who has recently returned from a lengthened residence 
among them, at 15,000 square miles, bnt they may still be con- 
sidered as to a great extent unknown. Dr. Guppy, who has recently 
written a valuable work entitled “The Solomon Islands; their 
ology, general Features, and suitability for Colonization ” was. 
attached to a man-of-war, but Mr, Woodford resided among the 
natives, engaged in collecting birds, mammals, ete., and was thus 
exposed to many dangers among a people who are given to head- 
hunting and cannibalism. The island of Savo was an active voleand 
when discovered in 1567, and at the present time has hot springs, 
which also occur upon Simbo and Vella Lavella, while Kulamb- 
angara is an extinct volcano. There is an active volcano near the 
centre of Bougainville. On this island, which is the largest and 
most northerly of the group, the mountains rise to a height of 10,000 
eet, on Guadalcanar to 8,000 feet, and on the other large islands 
to from three to five thousand feet. The islands are mostly clothed 
with dense tropical forest from the coast to the mountain taps. 
Records kept by traders at Ugi and Santa Anna show that the 
annual rainfall is from 100 to 150 inches per annum. Mr. Wood- 
ford stayed awhile upon the islands of Alu, Fauro, New Georgia 
and Guadalcanar, on the last of which he lived half a year. Here 
he explored the rivers Aola and Kobua, and got a bearing of the 
the females are invested in a series of superposed fringes. Many of 
7 natives pierce the lobe of the ear, and enlarge the opening 
ti l it attains a diameter of two inches or more. he canoes vary 
in size from one just large enough to carry a boy of twelve to the 
t head-hunting canoes, capable of carrying fifty or sixty men. 
é €y are adzed down from the solid tree, sewn together with a 
x ugh vegetable fibre, and caulked with a putty scraped from the 
an of the nut of Parinarium laurinum. The use of stone im- 
Plements seems to have gone out, except perhaps on Bougainville, 
