Communion was administered to about forty communicants, nearly all of whom had but a few years, or even months, previously, been reclaimed from heathenism and wild cannibal orgies.

The schools of Omoa were examined on the following day, and about seventy scholars were found under tuition, of whom fifty-four could read, and many had made some progress in arithmetic and geography.

As if in special contrast to this meeting of the Christians, the heathen Marquesans were engaged in some curious ceremonies, in honour of a celebrated prophetess who had died six weeks previously. Her name was Kauakamikihei. They had built a house for her, 12 feet wide by 24 long, and 48 feet high. On the top of this house they placed a target of white native cloth (there called kapa), and supposed to represent the moon. At this the men fired their muskets, and shouts of triumph greeted the lucky shots.

Afterwards a great company of tattooed savages rushed to the shore, with wild shouts, carrying a sacred canoe, which was covered with a broad flat frame of bamboo, on which was erected a small round house, covered with mats. In this were placed a live pig, a dog, and a cock, also some bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, and a bowl of poi. The canoe was much ornamented, and rigged with mast,

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and sail of kapa. With much shouting it was launched, and pushed by bold swimmers through the roaring surf into the open sea, where they left it and returned to shore. The canoe drifted slowly out of the bay, but struck on the northern headland, where it was in danger of being dashed to pieces on the rocks, when a native ran round the harbour and once more shoved off the frail bark, which sailed out to sea with its living freight. This ceremony was a final offering to the god whom the dead prophetess or priestess had served, and closed the season of koina or tabu, which had lasted six weeks, during which all manner of servile work or vain recreation were alike forbidden.

From these frequent allusions to heavy surf breaking on the shore, you may infer that the coral barrier-reef is wanting on most of the Marquesan isles. The fact is, that in many cases, these volcanic crags rise so precipitously, from so great a depth, that the diligent corals have failed to gain a restingplace, and so the sea dashes on the shore with unabated violence.

Strangely in contrast with these picturesque volcanic isles, is that other group over which also, I grieve as over a lost inheritance.

The Paumotus (i.e., cloud of islands)—or, as we used to call it, the Low or Dangerous Archipelago -is a cluster of eighty very flat coral-isles, most of

which are of the nature of atolls, some shaped like a horse-shoe, others so nearly circular that only small canoes can enter the calm lagoon which occupies the centre; and some are perfect rings, having no visible connection whatever with the ocean, which, nevertheless, finds a subterranean passage through which the waters rush in a strong current as the tides rise and fall. Such lagoons as these are generally encircled by a belt of swamp, which can only be crossed by laying down pathways of long branches; these act in the same way as huge Canadian snow-shoes, and enable the lightfooted natives to pass in safety across the treacherous green surface to the margin of the lake, where they keep small canoes in which to paddle about in search of eels and shrimps, and various kinds of fish. The water-supply is generally deficient, and only by sinking wells in the coral-sand can even brackish water be obtained. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, and some isles have good springs. But at best, the people depend greatly on their cocoa-nuts for drink even more than for food, and happily this supply rarely fails them. The coral-bed supplies neither soil nor water sufficient to raise any regular crops. Here and there a sort of caladium with edible root grows wild, but yams or taro are only known as imported luxuries. Foresttrees and scrub, however, contrive to find a living,

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and form a dense growth over most of the isles; and here and there clumps of carefully cultivated bananas, orange-trees, or bread-fruit, tell of a richer and deeper soil, probably accumulated with patient toil. Fig-trees and limes also flourish.

Some of the lagoon-reefs have a diameter of about forty miles, and only rise above the water in small isles, forming a dotted circle.

I believe it is generally supposed that such coralrings as these, have in many cases been the encircling reef formed round some volcanic isle, which has gradually subsided, whereas the reef-building corals have continually risen higher and higher, so as to remain in the shallow water, in which alone they can live, and thus in course of ages the condition of things becomes reversed. The once fertile isle disappears beneath the ocean, whereas the coralreef, rising to just below high-water mark, gradually accumulates shells and sea-weeds; the sea deposits drift of all sorts, and, little by little, a soil is formed which becomes fertile, and presently cocoa-nuts drift from far-away isles, and weeds of many sorts are carried by the birds, or float on the currents, and so the isle becomes fertile-a ring instinct with life, rising perpendicularly from the deep sea on the outer side, and very often on the inner side also.

Where this is the case, and the inner lagoon ap

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pears as fathomless as the outer sea, it is supposed that the atoll has been formed on the rim of a sunken crater, colonies of living corals having settled on its surface so soon as it subsided below high-water mark. This theory seems the more probable, from the manner in which you find these circular coral - isles densely clustered in certain localities, and none in other groups, just as in some regions we find innumerable extinct craters covering the whole surface of the land, and can readily imagine that should such a district subside, each cup-like crater might soon be covered with corals.

As in some craters the lava-flow has rent a gap near the summit whereby to escape, and in other craters it has found for itself a subterranean passage, leaving the upper crust unbroken, so in these atolls, some are perfect rings, and the tides ebb and flow within the lagoons by submarine channels, while others have an open passage, deep enough for a ship to sail into the inner lake.

The principal island in the Paumotu group is that of Manga Reva, a cluster of five isles, all within one encircling reef. The main isle is a basaltic mass, rising 2000 feet above the sea-level. It is the most fertile of the group, and is the headquarters of the French bishop and his clergy. The Paumotus have a population of about 5000 persons,