the good ship "Camden," with the missionaries Williams and Harris on board, hove in sight at Dillon Bay. The Eromangans, unable to guess the glad tidings about to be made known to them, thought it was that sandal-wood party returning to repeat the offences. That very day there was to have been a great festival on shore, and near the beach heaps of yams and taro had been piled up for that occasion. Fearing that portions of them might be carried off, the natives tried to prevent the landing of the strangers; but finding their signs misunderstood, and no heed taken of the absence of women and children, a party, headed by chief Kauiau, commenced the attack. Poor Harris was the first struck down; Williams ran into the sea, but before able to reach the boat he too was a dead man, and his body, like that of his unfortunate companion, cooked and eaten. In 1859, the missionary Turner visited the scene of the massacre. The chief who headed the attack was still alive and was even induced to go on board the "John Williams," when long and silently he gazed upon the portrait of the man whom his murderous hand had made the martyr of Eromanga. During an interval of twenty years the sandal-traders had obtained a firm footing on this notorious island, the wood being still so plentiful that one firm employed about sixty men to cut it in the bush. But they found the Eromangans reluctant to work, and had to import labour from Lifu, Vate, and other islands. This reluctance may be explained by bearing in mind that all Polynesians work more willingly and better abroad than at home, and also because a belief had taken hold of the mind of the Eromangans that a dysentery, which in 1842 carried off a third of their number, was owing to some hatchets obtained from a sandal vessel, inducing them to throw the implements away. Another incident may have prompted them to keep aloof from contact with sandal-wood traders. In 1843, two vessels under British colours, the "Sophia" and the "Sultana," and a third, said to have carried the flag of Tahiti, manned by sixty Tongans, commanded by chief Maafu, and under the supreme leadership of a Mr. Henry, an Englishman, arrived at Eromanga for the purpose of forcibly cutting sandal trees. The party, armed with muskets, landed, and cut and embarked a quantity of the wood. For the first few days the Eromangans were friendly, but at the end of that time some of their number, having stolen three axes, a disturbance took place, when one of the supposed thieves was shot by a Tongan. The fire was returned by arrows, and mortally wounded a Tonguese. In consequence of this affray, Henry and his party left Eromanga, and proceeded to Vate, where the men were again landed, armed as before, and directed to cut sandal-wood, the whites prudently remaining on board. This

robbery could not but lead to evil consequences.

Before long there was a battle with the natives, who, having no muskets, sustained a loss of twenty-six killed, whilst none of the intruders were wounded. In a subsequent storming of a fort more natives were killed, and the remainder retreated to an island, where they took refuge in a cave. The sandal-wood party, not satisfied with their triumph, pursued them, and finding that firing produced no apparent effect, they piled combustible material before the mouth of the cave, and setting fire to it, smoked the poor natives like rats, until all were suffocated. History repeats itself, for the same horrible scene here enacted by lawless savages was copied two or three years later by an heroic French general in Algeria.

The Vateans were not long in the strangers' debt, the crews of two English vessels, engaged in the sandal-wood trade, the "Cape Packet" and the "British Sovereign," having been massacred by them a few years afterwards. The "Cape Packet" was betrayed into their hands by a few discontented South Sea Islanders on board, whilst the "British Sovereign" had the misfortune to get wrecked, and its company, tormented by hunger and thirst, made for the shore, where all, with the exception of one Englishman and a boy, were clubbed and cooked. There seems to have been no provocation on the part of the strangers, and the sole cause for killing them appears to have been a desire for the bodies and clothes of the unfortunate men.

But Eromanga and Vate are not the only spots notorious for quarrels between traders and natives of the soil. Nearly every island of the South Pacific where the muchcoveted wood is found, has become the theatre of bloodshed and murder. In most cases, it is impossible to say who is to blame. The Christian missionaries, almost invariably taking the side of the natives, lay all the blame upon the traders, whilst the traders attribute every quarrel to the undeniably ferocious disposition of the aborigines. Both sides of looking upon the subject came out in bold relief at Sydney during the trial of Captain Lewis, the superintendent of a sandal-wood establishment at the Isle of Pines, who was accused of killing a native of Mare and wounding others. Mare first became known as a sandal-wood island in 1841, when a whole boat's crew, supposed to have belonged to the "Martha," of Sydney, was massacred. About 1843 the islanders attempted to capture

*The Sandal-wood of Mare may be identical with that of New Caledonia, lately described by Vieillard under tha name of Santalum austro-caledonicum, and named "Tibéan" by the aborigines of that great island. Macgillivray says, "The Sandal-wood trees of the Fijis, Aneitum, and the Isle of Pines, constitute three distinct species."

the "Brigand," which, however, was frustrated by the prudence of the captain. An attack on the "Sisters" unhappily proved successful, and since that time a number of white lives have been sacrificed in trading with Mare for sandal-wood. When H.M.S. " Havannah," Capt. Erskine, visited the Loyalty Islands, it was learnt that Capt. Lewis had shot a native, who with some others attempted to board the "Will-o'-the-Wisp." The justification of his conduct given by Capt. Lewis not being deemed sufficient, a complaint was lodged at Sydney, in consequence of which Lewis was arrested on an accidental visit to the place, and on the 7th July, 1851, brought to trial for murder. Though every effort was made to obtain a conviction, the jury found the prisoner not guilty. Capt. Lewis then returned to his station, and one of the first acts of the natives was to capture his cutter and murder the whole of her crew.

Owing to the ferocious character of the Polynesian natives in whose islands the sandal-trees grow, and the difficulty hitherto experienced to put this trade upon a different footing than it is at present, the loss of life resulting from this species of commerce is proportionally much greater than experienced in the whaling trade, with which it ranks as the most adventurous of callings. Mr. M'Gillivray, who is now employed in the sandal-wood trade, states that the profits obtained from this species of commerce are sometimes enormous, whatever that may mean. Lieut. Pollard, formerly of H.M.S. "Havannah," has furnished more satisfactory estimates, as far as the South Sea is concerned, and shows that in the case of the "Julia Percy," which cost £1200 with her boats, yielded in one voyage, after all expenses, including interest, and amounting to £2595, had been paid, a clear profit of £1182 4s. to the owner. The Australian vessels employed in the collection are in general small, and such as have been nearly worn out, and are unfitted for other branches of commerce. The crews, collected at Sydney, or picked up amongst the islands, are almost universally paid by the lay, as in whaling voyages; that is, by a share either of the wood collected, or of the value calculated at a low fixed price (about £12 a ton), the proportion for each seaman being one seventy-second part, so that for every ton of sandal-wood he receives £12. The amount of trade between the Australian colonies and China depends entirely on the price of the commodity in the market, which varies from £40 to £12 a ton.

THE ZOOLOGIST AT SCARBOROUGH.

BY THE REV. G. ROWE, M.A.

SCARBOROUGH is too famous as a hunting-ground for the marine naturalist to render it necessary for me to reiterate its claims to notice, yet I know by sad experience how very possible it is to go to a rich preserve of this sort only to find one's most diligent search repaid with empty vessels; and I may therefore be permitted to rehearse the favourite spots known to me for the benefit of any of your readers who may be there without a guide. These are then, first, the rocks beneath the castle. Here the blue lias stretches out to seawards in tabular masses almost perfectly level, the dip being really to the west. The flat strata are constantly breaking up, and wearing away, leaving lines of pools beneath their basset edges, which at once catch the eye as likely spots for the naturalist's labours. Occasionally, these pools deepen into some fissure, six feet deep, and then the cooler water (assisted by its greater quantity) is the prolific habitat of numerous delicate algae and mollusca, which do not thrive in the warmer and sun-lighted shallows.

The ground-plan of these slightly inclined lias beds, together with their superficial pools, is overlaid and obscured by the confused débris from the sandstone cliffs above. Some of the fallen blocks are so large as to remain stationary under all but the most violent storms. There is one great mass, which I have seen for the last two years, whose under-side slopes up at one corner, so that at low-water the explorer may twist his head and shoulders under it, and then appears the advantage of being exceedingly short-sighted; for within an inch or two of one's nose is a dripping mass of seaweeds and zoophytes, where beautiful nudibranchs display their rich colours and curious anatomy, and the pretty little univalve, Cypræa Europæα, crawls like a living pearl among the swelling lobes of the deadman's thumb (Alcyonium digitatum). The whole aperture teems with life; the weed-covered sides conceal Littorine, Lacuna, Chitons, and other mollusks, and in the dank shades of the pools beneath beauteous Actinia perennially expand their rays, green, yellow, and scarlet, and bright star-fish glide over the rocks with the stealthy motion of their thousand flexile suckers, each of which is a marvel of mechanism. Here, in the month of June or July, you may gather in half-an-hour such a store of living things, animal and vegetable, as shall afford study and recreation for a month.

The second spot worthy of mention is a ledge of flattish rocks, immediately opposite the bridge. These are only uncovered for a short time at low-water, spring tides. They produce a

luxuriant crop of Tangle, upon the fronds of which may be found abundantly the prettiest of all our limpets-the fragile Patella pellucida. It is worth while to pull up some of these large algae by the roots, which are composed of an interlaced mass of fibres. Their interstices always harbour small shells and crustaceans, and are the special habitat of Turtonia minuta. Creeping upon the leather-like fronds of the same plant may also be occasionally discovered one of the less common chitons (C. ruber), which when seen alive in its home is amply entitled to its specific name. The rock-pools here, too, are crowded with delicate sea-weeds.

There are similar ledges of rocks exposed at low-water further to the south, beyond the Spa; but except a fine sea-hare (Aplysia hybrida), which I once found in a pool, I have never obtained anything peculiar from them.

Such being the best hunting-grounds known to me on this part of the coast, it was with a pleasurable anticipation that, on the 8th of April last, I ascertained I should have an hour to wait at Scarborough on my way to Filey, and that the period of this delay nearly coincided with that of low tide. As it was during the neaps, I determined to beat the cover beneath the castle; and, accordingly, the shortest possible time after the arrival of the train saw me descend the north face of the harbour-wall, and scramble over the rocks towards the breakers. Alas! the one glance from the pier disclosed a rising tide. Already my great blocks were besprinkled with spray, or moated by the fast advancing waves. However, it was not a time for long consideration, as the ground would soon be covered, so I commenced my search with a will. Passing for the present the shooting masses of Fucus serratus, which hangs like shaggy locks upon every stone, and is now full of fruit, I got to the lowest pools. Great groups of Laminaria digitata predominated, the long strap-like divisions playing in the rushing water with graceful ease. Drawing these up carefully, I gathered a few good specimens of Patella pellucida from the lowermost ends, and fancied that the animals clung with more than usual tenacity to the fronds, so as to require a detaching violence which threatened to damage the delicate shells of this gasteropod. Laminaria bulbosa occurs in much less quantity, and did not appear to produce anything. Selecting some of the smallest of these large algae as book specimens, I next succeeded in approaching close to one of the bigger stones, whose dank weed-shrouded back stood out like an elephant from the lower ranks around. The waves were breaking against the seaward side, and dancing and curling under it; but balancing myself carefully on two slippery points of rock, I began to collect in hopefulness. The lower surface was profusely covered

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