Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
64 
while about the thickly populated villages are 
carefully tended plantations of sugar-cane, 
bananas, pineapples, yams, taro, and other 
tropical vegetables and fruit. An old New 
Hebrides trader captain estimates the population 
of Tanna at 8,000, and believes it could sup¬ 
port 30,000. 
Mallicolo—a favourite recruiting ground for 
the Fijian and Queensland vessels employed in 
the labour trade—is about fifty-five miles in 
length, with an average width of twenty miles, 
and is covered with magnificent forests from its 
littoral to the very summit of the range that 
traverses the island. That the timber of Malli¬ 
colo is valuable for ship-building purposes 
Australian trading captains well know, but until 
the group is annexed by either France or 
England there is but little prospect of its forests 
being exploited in a systematic manner. The 
island is intersected by some splendid streams of 
water ; and although malarial fever is prevalent 
at certain seasons of the year, the climate on 
the whole may be considered healthy. It is a 
favourite rendezvous for both the English and 
French war-vessels engaged in patrolling the 
group, and is also frequently visited by trading 
