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the Isle of Contrariety; and we discovered a harbour, and anchored on the north-east side of Malata. In connection with the “Bramble,” the “Havannah’s” tender, we visited the whole north-east coast of New Caledonia, and about one-fourth part of the south-west side of it. The “Bramble” visited the Loyalty Islands and the Isle of Pines.

In their general character—in their geology, their botany, and their fauna, so far as our observation extended — the New Hebrides, Queen Charlotte’s Islands, and the Solomon Islands bear a considerable resemblance to New Zealand. New Caledonia, on the other hand, in its botany especially, is more like New South Wales; although its fauna is more allied to New Zealand. As in New Zealand, the volcanic character predominates more or less through the New Hebrides, Queen Charlotte’s and the Solomon groups. In Tana there is a large volcano, which was seen by Captain Cook when he discovered the island.

A party of us from the “Havannah” visited the volcano. We saw seven or eight craters; three or four were extinct; two or three were smouldering; and two were in a state of great activity: every five minutes or so the one or the other emitted a dense cloud of smoke, exploded with a sound like thunder, and discharged a shower of molten matter. The sight was grand, sublime, and occasionally terrific. The volcano is always active, though the eruptions vary very much in violence and duration. We were very near to it before we heard any sound; but at times it is heard at Aneiteum, a distance of from thirty to forty miles. The mountain is low, and over an area of perhaps three miles in diameter it is covered with ashes. It is close to the sea upon one side, and about four miles from Port Resolution on the other. For a considerable distance along the side of Port Resolution, next the volcano, there is a succession of hot springs bubbling out from the rocks on a level with the tide mark, of all temperatures, from the boiling point downwards. The water from these springs is fresh, has no peculiar taste, and appears to be used regularly by the natives. We observed no water between Port Resolution and the volcano. In one or two places the smoke is issuing from the ground, and the soil is burnt and cracked. The appearances are precisely as they were described by Captain Cook seventy years ago.

These three groups exhibit much of the same mountainous character as New Zealand, and the same humid atmosphere apart from purely tropical plants, there is the same dense vegetation, the same close undergrowth, the same profusion and variety of ferns. The Damara, or Kauri pine, peculiar to the north of New Zealand, we found, though of a different species, both in the New Hebrides and Queen Charlotte’s Islands. In all these groups, as in New Zealand, the only indigenous quadruped is a small rat. The only reptile is the lizard. We found a sea-snake in the New Hebrides, but there is no poisonous reptile on land. Ducks and pigeons are plentiful in all these groups; and swallows, unknown in New Zealand, are common to all these islands with New South Wales.

The population of the New Hebrides may be about 40,000; of New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands it may be about the same number. Queen Charlotte’s, unknown, but small; probably a few thousands. Solomon Islands, also unknown; but, so far as we saw, numerous. These calculations, from observation and enquiry, have been made with as much care and accuracy as circumstances would permit, and with the constant recollection that guessing invariably leads to the over-estimating of numbers, and that in almost all uncivilized tribes the census has been over-rated.

The inhabitants of all these four groups belong to the Papuan or Negro race. They are quite a distinct race from the inhabitants of Eastern Polynesia. In their personal appearance, dress, mode of living, government, warfare and customs, they are all much the same. They have all curly or woolly hair; they are darker than the New Zealanders or the Samoans, but not nearly so black as the Africans. They are of the middle size, but they vary in size in different islands; in Aneiteum, they are below the average, but tight and well made. In Fate they are above the average size, strong and robust; the women in Fate are tall and slender. Their clothing throughout all the groups is essentially the same. The principal difference is in the island of Fate, where the dress of the men is fuller, and has decidedly more respect to decency than in the other islands. The men everywhere, except in Fate, wear only a narrow cincture and a wrapper of leaves or native cloth, after the manner of the Caffres about Delagoa Bay, or the natives of the Isthmus of Darien. The women wear round their middle a mat manufactured from the rind of a tree. In the New Hebrides this dress is much fuller than in New Caledonia. In some islands the women wear an appendage to their dress behind, which looks like a tail, and as they are seen from the deck of a vessel walking on the shore, their appearance might easily give rise to the story of people being discovered with tails! This is the whole of their ordinary clothing; but in New Caledonia, they have a large mat to cover them completely, and protect them, when necessary, from rain or cold. It is in appearance like some of the coarser mats among the New Zealanders.

In Aneiteum, Tana, and to a small extent in Erumanga the men dress their hair in a peculiar manner. The hair is separated into small locks, and tied round from the roots to the top with a narrow rind; when fully dressed in this way, it has the appearance of a bunch of small whip cord, spread over the head and fastened behind. In New Caledonia the chiefs and influential men wear their hair long, and tie it up in a semi-conical form on the top of their head. The women all crop theirs close to the very ears. The tall, lank ladies of Fate have on this account a most hideous appearance.

Their food consists chiefly of indigenous fruits and vegetables; as the cocoa-nut, bread-