POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
69 
effort was to build a lime-kiln, on which we bestowed 
considerable labour, though it did not ultimately answer. 
The natives prepared their lime by burning it in a large 
pit, in a manner resembling that in which they had 
prepared their ovens for opio. This was done with 
greater facility than they could burn it in the kiln they 
had built, though with less economy in fuel. 
Specimens of fibrous limestone, and small fragments 
of calcareous rock, have been occasionally found in some 
of the islands, but not in quantity or kind to be avail¬ 
able in the preparation of lime for building. Shells 
might be procured in tolerable abundance; but the 
white coral rock, of which the extensive reefs surround¬ 
ing these islands are composed, and which appears 
inexhaustible, is used in the manufacture of lime. 
The natives dive into the sea, sometimes several 
fathoms deep, in order to procure the solid or sponge¬ 
shaped coral, which for this purpose is better than the 
forked or branching kinds. They also prefer that which 
is attached to the main reef, and growing, or, as they 
sometimes call it, live coral, to that which is broken 
off and hardened or dead. The large fragments or 
blocks of coral, sometimes three or four feet in diameter, 
thus procured, are conveyed on rafts to the shore, where 
they are broken into small pieces. A capacious hole 
is then dug, wherein fuel in immense logs is piled up 
till it assumes the appearance of a mound four or five 
feet high. On the outside of this, the pieces of coral 
are placed, twelve or eighteen inches thick. The pile 
is then kindled, the fuel consumed, and the lime, thus 
burnt, sinks down into the pit. They are generally so 
impatient to see whether it is well burnt, that they 
throw water upon it often before the fire is extinct; 
