eons gave us a
festive sensation and a hearty appetite. The night under the bright,
starlit sky, on board the softly rocking launch, wrapped me in a
feeling of safety and coziness I had not enjoyed for a long time.

Along the steepest path imaginable I climbed next morning to the
mountain's edge. The path often led along smooth rocks, where lianas
served as ropes and roots as a foothold; and I was greatly surprised
to find many fields on top, to which the women have to climb every
day and carry the food down afterwards, which implies acrobatic feats
of no mean order.

Ureparapara was the northernmost point I had reached so far, and
the neighbourhood of the art-loving Solomon Islands already made
itself felt. Whereas in the New Hebrides every form of art, except
mat-braiding, is at once primitive and decadent, here any number
of pretty things are made, such as daintily designed ear-sticks,
bracelets, necklaces, etc.; I also found a new type of drum, a regular
skin-drum, with the skin stretched across one end, while the other
is stuck into the ground. The skin is made of banana leaves. These
and other points mark the difference between this people and that of
the New Hebrides. As elsewhere all over the Banks group, the people
have long faces, high foreheads, narrow, often hooked, noses, and
a light skin. Accordingly, it would seem that they are on a higher
mental plane than those of the New Hebrides, and cannibalism is said
never to have existed here.

My collections were not greatly enriched, as a British man-of-war had
anchored here for a few days a short time before; and anyone who knows
the blue-jackets' rage for collecting will understand that they are
quite capable of stripping a small island of its treasures. A great
deal of scientifically valuable material is lost in this way, though
fortunately these collectors go in for size chiefly, leaving small
objects behind, so that I was able to procure several valuable pieces.

After our return to Port Patterson the launch took me to a plantation
from which I ascended the volcano of Venua Lava. Its activity shows
principally in sulphur springs, and there are large sulphur deposits,
which were worked fifteen years ago by a French company. A large amount
of capital had been collected for the purpose, and for a few weeks
or months the sulphur was carried down to the shore by natives and
exported. Then it was found that the deposits were not inexhaustible,
that the emplo