The purpose to which they applied the iron hoop we found was to substitute it for the pieces of a hard greenstone (nephrite) in the heads of their axes and adzes.  The one figured above represents the usual form of these instruments.  The V-shaped handle is a single piece of wood, and the stone, previously ground down to a fine edge, is fixed in a cleft at the end of the short arm, and firmly secured by cordage.  This axe is usually carried by being hooked over the left shoulder with the handle crossing the breast diagonally.

Among our visitors today I noticed two who had large white patches on the skin, as if caused by some leprous complaint—­one man had lost his nose, and in addition was affected with elephantiasis of the left foot.

NATIVES SHOW THIEVISH PROPENSITIES.

After leaving us two of the canoes paddled up to the tide pole on the neighbouring reef, and before a boat could reach them, the natives managed to secure the pigs of iron ballast with which it was moored.  They communicated with two canoes, coming from the direction of Piron Island, which soon afterwards came under the stern.  As one of the stolen pigs was seen partially concealed in the bow of one of the last comers the jollyboat was manned to recover it, when the canoes left in great haste with the boat in chase.  As the boat approached a coconut was thrown overboard from the canoe, as if to cause delay by stopping to pick it up, but, the intended effect not being produced, the stolen ballast also was thrown out, when the boat of course returned.  By Captain Stanley’s orders two musket shots were fired over the canoes, while about 300 yards distant, to show that although in fancied security they were still within reach.  The splash of the first bullet caused them to paddle off in great haste, and, when they again stopped, a second shot, striking the water beyond the canoes, sent them off to the shore at their utmost speed.

CANOES OF CORAL HAVEN DESCRIBED.

With a single exception, to be afterwards noticed, the canoes seen by us in Coral Haven are of the following description.  The usual length is about twenty-five feet, and one of this size carries from seven to ten people.  The body is formed by the hollowed-out trunk of a tree, tapering and rising at each end, short and rounded behind, but in front run out into a long beak.  A stout plank on each side raises the canoe a foot, forming a gunwale secured by knees, the seam at the junction being payed over with a black pitch-like substance.  This gunwale is open at the stern, the ends not being connected, but the bow is closed by a raised end-board fancifully carved and painted in front of which a crest-like wooden ornament fits into a groove running along the beak.  This figurehead, called tabura, is elaborately cut into various devices, painted red and white, and decorated with white egg-shells and feathers of the cassowary and bird of paradise.  The bow and stern also are