small
crayfish, and several fine fish landed. These were at once cooked, the
fires being kindled on some large, flat basalt stones, which were lying
scattered about on the bank. On inquiring how these stones came to be
there, I was told by "Lizzie" that they were the remains of an old
wall that once enclosed one of the ancient villages. Afterwards we came
across many similar sites, which seemed to bear out the statements of
Duperrey and other navigators, that Strong's Island was once inhabited
by over twenty thousand people. At the present time the population does
not reach five hundred. One of these places was situated on the summit
of a spur of the great mountain range that traverses the island. The
top of the mountain had been levelled as flat as a table, and a space
of about an acre was covered with what appeared to be a floor of
huge basaltic prisms, laid closely together. What the purpose of such
gigantic labour was none of my companions had any idea, and on my
inquiring from Lizzie how these stones, many of which weighed several
tons, were carried to such an extraordinary height up such a steep
ascent, she shook her head, and said, "You ask Rii. He is a very old
man, and not a Christian, and knows all about the old times. But please
don' ask me. The missionaries don' let us talk of the bad days (i.e.,
heathen times)." This put an end to all inquiry on my part, as old Rii
could not speak a word of English, save a few vigorous expressions he
had acquired from whale-ships and which he was very fond of using, and I
was only just learning the Kusaie language.

As we travelled up along the sides of the mountain we saw numbers
of large, fat pigeons. They seemed to feel no alarm whatever at our
presence. Their note, which is very deep and resonant, filled the air
with strange, weird echoes that reverberated amongst the silence of the
mountain forest. On reaching a little plateau on the side of a spur,
old Rii stopped, and beckoned to us to keep silence, at the same time
sending all the boys below the plateau. Peering cautiously through the
jungle, we saw, lying down on the moss-covered ground at the butt of a
tree, a sow with her litter. We lay very quiet till the boys had formed
a cordon at the lower edge of the plateau, so as to cut off escape in
that direction, and then Rii whispered to me to shoot the sow in the
belly, but not to hit any of her litter if I could help it, as we could
easily take them alive with the d