[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
10 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC
FLORA AND FAUNA
The vegetation of the New Hebrides is luxurious
enough to make all later visitors share Quiros’
amazement. The possibilities for the planter are
nearly inexhaustible, and the greatest difficulty is
that of keeping the plantations from the constant
encroachments of the forest. Yet the flora is poorer
in forms than that of Asiatic regions, and in the
southern islands it is said to be much like that of
New Caledonia.
As a rule, thick forest covers the islands; only
rarely we find areas covered with reed-grass. On
Erromanga these are more frequent.
In the Santa Cruz Islands the flora seems richer
than in the New Hebrides.
Still more simple than the flora is the fauna. Of
mammals there are only the pig, dog, a flying-fox
and the rat, of which the first two have probably been
imported by the natives. There are but few birds,
reptiles and amphibies, but the few species there are ,
are very prolific, so that we find swarms of lizards
and snakes, the latter all harmless Boida, but
occasionally of considerable size.
Crocodiles are found only in the Santa Cruz
Islands, and do not grow so large there as in the
Solomon Islands.
Animal life in the sea is very rich; turtles and
many kinds of fish and Cetaceae are plentiful.
