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Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
natives living in the eleven villages that are 
situated at pretty wide intervals on Niue, and 
although, since the introduction and adoption 
of European clothing, pulmonary and other 
dreaded diseases have become prevalent, the 
population shows no signs of decreasing ; in 
fact, it has shown a slight increase since 1872. 
Before describing the people, however, it should 
be mentioned that Niue is one of the few of those 
peculiarly-formed islands known as “ upheaved 
coral,” and although the interior is either a 
series of impenetrable guava scrub interspersed 
with belts of heavy timber, coconut groves, 
and masses of jagged coral rock covered with 
a matted growth of vine and creeper, the 
decomposed coral soil is of wonderful fertility, 
and, given one condition—an industrious people 
—this solitary and little-known island would 
be one of the richest in all the South Pacific. 
Five years ago I first saw Niue and afterwards 
spent six months there. A very stormy passage 
from Tonga had thoroughly sickened me of 
the hideously dirty and uncomfortable trading 
steamer in which the voyage was made, and it 
was delightful to hear the rattle of the cables 
through the hawse-pipe that told us we had 
