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[Illustration: THE SOLOMON ISLANDS
London: Swan Sonnenschein & C^o.]
THE SOLOMON ISLANDS AND THEIR NATIVES.
by
H. B. GUPPY, M.B., F.G.S.
Late Surgeon, R.N.
[Illustration]
London:
Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co.,
Paternoster Square,
1887.
S. Cowan & Co. Strathmore Printing Works, Perth.
PREFACE.
WHEN, in the beginning of 1881, H.M.S. “Lark” was being prepared for her
commission as a surveying ship in the Western Pacific, I was selected by
Sir John Watt Reid, the Medical Director-General of the Navy, to be
appointed as Surgeon. For this selection I was also in some measure
indebted to the late Sir Frederick Evans, then Hydrographer, who was
desirous that a person possessing tastes for natural history should be
chosen. I subsequently received some instructions from Dr. Günther,
Keeper of Zoology in the British Museum, to whom I may take this
opportunity of expressing my sincere thanks for the encouragement he
gave to me during the commission. Unfortunately there were no public
funds from which I could be assisted; and, as a matter of fact, I may
state that all expenses had to come out of my pay as a naval surgeon. At
the close of the commission I received, mainly through the influence of
Dr. Günther, a promise of a grant of £150 from the Royal Society of
London for the exploration of the interior of the large island of
Guadalcanar; but a very serious illness prevented me from carrying out
my intention, and thus an expedition, which I had looked forward to as a
fitting completion of my work in these islands, was never undertaken.
However, my disappointment was in some measure diminished on my arrival
in England, after being invalided, by the important results arising from
the examination by Dr. John Murray, Director of the Challenger
Commission, of that portion of my geological collection which threw
light on the formation of coral reefs, and which exhibited the deep-sea
deposits of the Challenger Expedition as rocks composing islands in the
Solomon Group. To Dr. Murray I am indebted for much kindness in many
ways, and I gladly take this opportunity of expressing my sincerest
thanks.
In this volume I have chiefly confined myself to my observations on the
anthropology, natural history, botany, and meteorology of the group,
having originally reserved my account of the geology and of the coral
reefs, together with my special descriptions of the islands, for another
volume, which I hoped to publish shortly, if my first undertaking proved
a success. My reasons for thus acting were to be found in a lack of
funds and in the necessity of not overlading my first venture, which,
like a ship carrying a heavy though perhaps a valuable cargo, might
founder within sight of the port of departure. This difficulty has been
met by a generous arrangement of my publishers, in consequence of which
both volumes will be brought out together. All my notes relating to
these islands are there embodied, with the exception of my coral reef
observations, which have been recently published by the Royal Society of
Edinburgh in their Proceedings (1885-1886). However, to make this volume
more complete, I have added a short introductory chapter containing a
general description of the islands.
It is necessary that I should here briefly allude to the circumstances
under which my observations and collections were made. Had I been
previously aware of the difficulties and discomforts that would attend
me, I should have hesitated to have performed more than a tithe of what
I finally accomplished “per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum.”
Inexperienced and deprived of any official support or recognition of
other than my professional duties, I was only urged on by the
consciousness of the importance of the work I had voluntarily
undertaken. At length my health began to give way, and it was with mixed
feelings of satisfaction and apprehension that I returned to the islands
for the third and last year. One cause of continual worry lay in the
fact that for two-thirds of the time spent in this region, I had only my
cabin for the disposal of my collections, the size of the ship (a
schooner of about 150 tons), and the arrangements made before leaving
England, not permitting of any other plan.
Under these circumstances I received the greatest assistance from
Lieut.-Commander C. F. Oldham, who, notwithstanding that he had received
no instructions concerning myself, smoothed the way for me and gave me
the opportunities I desired, often, it should be added, at the expense
of much anxiety to himself. To the officers, Lieut. C. F. de M. Malan,
Lieut. T. H. Heming, and Lieut. A. Leeper, I am lastingly indebted, not
only for their constant aid, but also for the sympathy they evinced
towards myself and my pursuits. From the petty-officers and crew I
received much voluntary help, and I was often indebted to the services
of Mr. Samuel Redman and Mr. Albert Rowe. My right-hand man was Mr.
William Isabell who had been sent to the ship as Leading-Stoker to take
charge of the condenser. Without his aid in the packing away of my
collections and his cheerful readiness to assist me in every way
throughout the commission, I should have broken down long before I did.
To his careful attendance during my illness I owe my life.
With reference to the different sections of this work, I should remark
that the anthropological notes are for the most part now published for
the first time. The translation of Gallego’s Journal and the historical
sketch of the re-discovery of the group will, I hope, have a general as
well as a special interest. In my natural history notes it will be seen
that I am greatly indebted to the papers on my collections of shells and
reptiles by Mr. Edgar Smith and Mr. G. A. Boulenger. For the
identification of the greater part of my botanical collection, I am
indebted to the courtesy of the officials at Kew and particularly to
that of Prof. Oliver. I take this opportunity of acknowledging the kind
assistance I received at Melbourne from Baron Ferd. von Mueller. My
inexperience in botanical collecting considerably diminished the value
of my collections, which have further suffered from the fact that I have
been unable after repeated application to learn anything of a collection
of ferns that I presented to the British Museum. During the commission I
profited greatly by Lieut. Malan’s previous experiences of the Pacific
Islands. To Lieut. Leeper I am greatly indebted, as shown in the
chapters on the vocabulary of Bougainville Straits and on the
meteorology of the group. The enumeration of the many disinterested
services I have received would carry me far beyond the limits of a
preface. Of all of them I shall retain a lasting remembrance.
HENRY BROUGHAM GUPPY.
17 Woodlane, Falmouth.
INTRODUCTION.
THE Solomon Islands cover an area 600 miles in length. They include
seven or eight large mountainous islands attaining an extreme height, as
in the case of Guadalcanar and Bougainville, of from 8,000 to 10,000
feet, and possessing a length varying from 70 to 100 miles, and a
breadth varying between 20 and 30 miles. In addition, there are a great
number of smaller islands which range in size from those 15 to 20 miles
in length to the tiny coral island only half a mile across. The islands
fall naturally into two divisions, those mainly or entirely of volcanic
formations and those mainly or entirely of recent calcareous formations.
In the first division, St. Christoval may be taken as a type of the
large mountainous islands possessing massive profiles, such as
Guadalcanar, Malaita, Isabel, etc. St. Christoval, which rises to a
height of 4,100 feet above the sea, is composed in the mass of much
altered and sometimes highly crystalline volcanic rocks (such as, in
their order of frequency, dolerites, diabases, diorites, gabbros,
serpentines, and saussuritic felspar-rock) which, as I learn from Mr. T.
Davies, have been both formed and altered at considerable depths and
indicate great geological age and extensive denudation. Recent
calcareous rocks, such as will be subsequently referred to in the
description of the second division of islands, flank the lower slopes at
the sea-border up to an elevation of 500 feet. Fragments of similar
diorites, dolerites, and other dense basic rocks, all much altered and
often schistose, have been transported by trees to the coral islets off
the coasts of Guadalcanar and afford evidence of the geological
structure of that island. Serpentines were obtained by Dr. Hombron in
1838[1] from St. George’s Island, which is “ipso facto” a portion of
Isabel. Bougainville and New Georgia are largely of more recent origin,
as is indicated by their numerous symmetrical volcanic cones. However,
the geological evidence at present at our disposal points generally to
the great antiquity of the larger islands. The significance of this fact
will be subsequently referred to. There can be little doubt that some of
the mountainous islands will be found to yield in quantity the ores of
tin and copper. A resident trader, Captain John Macdonald, has
discovered arsenical pyrites and stream tin at the head of the Keibeck
River in the interior of St. Christoval. A sample of stream tin from the
south-east part of Bougainville was given to me by the Shortland chief.
Copper will not improbably be found in association with the serpentine
rocks of these islands.
[1] “Voyage au Pole Sud et dans L’Océanie,” (D’Urville). Géologie:
part ii., p. 211.
The smaller islands of volcanic formation group themselves into two
classes:
(1.) Those which, like Fauro and some of the Florida Islands, are
composed partly of modern rocks, such as hornblende and augite-andesites
with their tuffs and agglomerates, and partly of ancient and often
highly crystalline rocks such as, as I am informed by Prof. Judd and Mr.
T. Davies, quartz-diorites, quartz-porphyries, altered dacites and
dolerites, serpentines, saussuritic felspar-rock, etc.
(2.) Those that are composed entirely or in the main of recently erupted
rocks, islands which preserve the volcanic profile, possess craters, and
sometimes exhibit signs of latent activity. Eddystone Island, which I
examined, is probably typical of the majority of the islands of this
class, such as Savo, Murray Island, and many others. It is composed of
andesitic lavas of the augite type, is pierced by many fumaroles, and
has a crater in the solfatara stage. Savo, though quiescent in the
present day, has been in eruption within the memory of living men, and
was in a state of activity in 1567 when the Spaniards discovered the
group. Fumaroles and sulphur-deposits occur in Vella-la-vella. It may,
however, be generally stated that the volcanic forces in these regions
are in a quiescent condition at the present day, there being only one
vent in active eruption, viz., Mount Bagana in the interior of
Bougainville. Many small islands with volcanic profiles show no evidence
of a latent activity. Amongst them I may mention those of Bougainville
Strait, which are composed of andesitic lavas of the hornblende type.
I now pass to those islands which are composed mainly or entirely of
recent calcareous formations.[2] Excluding the innumerable islets that
have been formed on the coral reefs at the present sea-level, we come
first to those small islands and islets less than 100 feet in height,
such as the Three Sisters and Stirling Island, which are composed
entirely of coral limestone. In the next place there are islands of
larger size and greater height, such as Ugi, which are composed in bulk
of partially consolidated bedded deposits containing numerous
foraminifera, and possessing the characters of the muds which were found
by the “Challenger” Expedition to be at present forming around oceanic
volcanic islands in depths probably of from 150 to 500 fathoms. Coral
limestones encrust the lower slopes of these islands and do not attain a
greater thickness than 150 feet. The next type is to be found in
Treasury Island which has a similar structure to that of Ugi, but
possesses in its centre an ancient volcanic peak that was once submerged
and is now covered over by these recent deposits. Then, there are
islands, such as the principal island of the Shortlands, in which the
volcanic mass has become an eccentric nucleus, from which line after
line of barrier-reef has been advanced based on the soft deposits. These
soft deposits contain amongst other organic remains, the shells of
pteropods and the tests of foraminifera in great abundance. In such
islands I did not find that the coral limestone had a thickness of as
much as 100 feet. In this island the upraised reefs are based upon hard
foraminiferal limestones. Lastly, we have the upraised atoll of Santa
Anna which within the small compass of a height of 470 feet displays the
several stages of its growth; first, the originally submerged volcanic
peak; then, the investing soft deposit resembling in character a
deep-sea clay and considered to have been formed in considerable depths,
probably from 1500 to 2000 fathoms; and over all, the ring of coral
limestone that cannot far exceed 150 feet in thickness. The islands
formed mainly of the soft foraminiferous deposits have long level
summits free from peaks. Judging from their profiles, the islands of
Ulaua and Ronongo will be found to possess the structure of Ugi and
Treasury. The western end of Choiseul has a very significant profile,
and I have little doubt from my examination of the lower slopes that
this extremity of the island is mainly composed of the recent soft
deposits.
[2] _Vide_ my paper on this subject (Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.: vol.
xxxii., p. 545), and my work on the geology of this group.
I now proceed to refer very shortly to the coral reefs[3] of these
islands. The three principal classes are to be found in this region;
but of these, the fringing and barrier-reefs are more commonly
distributed, whilst the atolls are comparatively few in number and of
small size. A line of barrier-reefs, probably not much under 60 miles in
length and bearing innumerable islets on its surface, fronts the east
coasts of the islands of New Georgia at a distance of from one to three
miles from the shore. Extensive reefs of the same class, having a broad
deep-water channel inside them, lie off the large island of Isabel and
off the south-coast of Choiseul. Barrier-reefs, of smaller extent, also
skirt the west end of Guadalcanar and the southern end of Bougainville.
I have referred particularly to these reefs because at the time that Mr.
Darwin wrote his work on “Coral Reefs,” fringing-reefs were alone
believed to exist in these islands.
[3] _Vide_ my paper on this subject. (Proc. Roy. Soc., Edin.,
1885-86.)
The larger islands of the Solomon Group are often separated from each
other by depths of several hundred fathoms. St. Christoval, for
instance, is separated from the neighbouring islands of Guadalcanar and
Malaita by straits in which casts of 200 fathoms fail to reach the
bottom. On the other hand, the same 100 fathom line includes both
Bougainville and Choiseul. Judging, however, from the soundings obtained
by Lieut.-Commander Oldham between the islands lying off the north coast
of St. Christoval, it would appear probable that depths of 400 fathoms
commonly occur between the islands of the Solomon Group. Although the
soundings hitherto made in this portion of the Western Pacific go to
show that this archipelago, together with New Ireland and New Britain,
are included within the same 1,000 fathom line, which extends as a loop
from the adjacent borders of New Guinea, we can scarcely urge this fact
as evidence of a former land connection, seeing that one of the most
interesting features in the geological history of this region is that of
the enormous elevation which these islands have experienced in recent
and probably sub-recent times. Independently of the character of the
deposits discovered by me in the Solomon Islands, I arrived at the
conclusion that there had been a recent upheaval of at least 1,500 feet.
The characters of some of the deposits, as examined by Dr. Murray in the
light of the “Challenger” soundings, however, afford indications of an
upheaval of a far more extensive nature. I am informed, in fact, by Mr.
H. B. Brady, that the foraminifera of some of the Treasury Island rocks
indicate depths of probably from 1500 to 2000 fathoms. Geologists may
look forward with the greatest interest to the results of the
examination by Mr. Brady of the foraminiferous deposits of the Western
Pacific. One of the most important results will be to establish the
great elevation which has occurred in this region during Post-Tertiary
times. We are therefore justified in regarding the island groups of the
Western Pacific as having always retained their insular condition,
situated, as they are, in a region of upheaval, and separated, as they
are, from each other and from the Australian continent by depths of from
1,000 to 2,400 fathoms. I have already pointed out that the volcanic
rocks of the large islands of the Solomon Group are geologically
ancient. Their elevation and the great subaerial denudation which they
have experienced afford indications of the insular condition having been
preserved from remote ages. It is this prolonged isolation that explains
the occurrence of the peculiar forms of the amphibia which I discovered
in Bougainville Straits, and that accounts for many of the peculiarities
of the fauna of this archipelago.
Having thus briefly considered the leading geological and hydrological
features of this group, I pass on to consider these islands in the point
of view of an intending settler. They are for the most part clothed with
dense forest and rank undergrowth, and it is only here and there, as in
the western portion of Guadalcanar and in limited localities in St.
Christoval, that the forest gives place to long grass and ferns, a
change often corresponding with the passage from a clayey and calcareous
to a dry porous and volcanic soil. As a rule, the calcareous districts
of a large island possess a rich red argillaceous soil, often 5 or 6
feet in thickness, and in such localities the streams are large and
numerous. In the districts of volcanic formation the soil is dry,
friable, and porous, whilst the streams are few in number and of no
great size. In the principal island of the Shortlands the difference in
the character of the soil between the volcanic north-west part and the
remaining calcareous portion is well exhibited. In the smaller islands
the soil varies in character according to the formation, those of
volcanic origin being singularly destitute of streams.
In chapter XVII. I have dwelt with some detail on the climate. The
healthiest portion of the group would, as I think, be found in the
eastern islands, and the healthiest part of each island would be that
which is exposed to the blast of the south-east trade during a large
portion of the year. The excessive annual rainfall, the humid
atmosphere, together with the enervating season of the north-west
monsoon, are amongst the chief evils of the climate. Malarious districts
can be readily avoided by shunning the low-lying damp districts on the
lee sides of islands. Dysentery is rare on account of the general purity
of the water. But, if we believe native testimony, which I have found
most reliable and which in this instance agrees with my own, the streams
draining calcareous regions are least liable to suspicion. Should an
intending settler ask me whether the climate is suitable for the
European, I would reply that with proper precautions as to his habits
and the selection of a site, the white-man can here preserve his health
as well as in most other tropical islands in these latitudes.
I will conclude this introduction with some remarks on the vexed
question of making annexations and forming protectorates in the Western
Pacific. From the eagerness of our Australian colonies to control them
and of France and Germany to possess them, the presumption arises that
the islands in this region are worth holding. Yet, how surprising have
been the changes within the last four years! When in 1882 I was in the
Solomon Islands, British influence was recognised as paramount in New
Guinea and throughout the Western Pacific. At the present time the
British flag has been almost squeezed out of the Western Pacific. In
April of this year (1886), the British and German Governments came to an
arrangement by which the northern side of New Guinea together with New
Britain, New Ireland, and the adjacent western half of the Solomon Group
passed under the protection, or in other words into the practical
possession, of Germany; whilst Great Britain by this arrangement was to
consider the remaining islands of the Western Pacific and the south
coast of New Guinea as her sphere of action. It is only in New Guinea
that Great Britain has exercised her right. Amongst the remaining
islands of the Western Pacific she has little scope either for acquiring
territory or for establishing a protectorate. France possesses New
Caledonia and in a geographical sense she can claim not only the Loyalty
Islands but the New Hebrides Group. There only remains then for Great
Britain the Santa Cruz Islands and the adjacent eastern half of the
Solomon Group, in which, if she chooses, she can exercise her rights
without dispute.
England’s wisest policy in the Western Pacific is to recognise the
existing condition of things, and to deal with France as generously as
she has dealt with Germany. Stifling my own patriotic regrets, I cannot
but think that the presence of Germany in these regions will be fraught
with great advantage to the world of science. When we recall our
spasmodic efforts to explore New Guinea and the comparatively small
results obtained, when we remember to how great an extent such attempts
have been supported by private enterprise and how little they have been
due to government or even to semi-official aid, we have reason to be
glad that the exploration of these regions will be conducted with that
thoroughness which can only be obtained when, as in the case of Germany,
geographical enterprises become the business of the State.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
A Traveller’s Difficulties--Islands of which Science has no
ken--Bush-Walking a Tedious Process--Ascent of Stream-Courses--Heavy
Annual Rainfall--Native Companions--Mysterious Influence of the Fragrant
Weed--Odd-looking Party of Geologists--A Night on the Summit of
Treasury Island--Experiences in a Rob Roy Canoe--Narrow Escape from
Drowning--Nature of the Work performed by the Officers of Survey--An
Apparent Injustice pp. 1-12