Show APIA NAVIGATOR ISLANDS december 1872 editor deseret mews news we arrived here on the 3rd ard ard of october in thirty three days from san F francisco the islands areri ot bt by any means menns what they havo have been represented they are mountainous in the interior only at ht the tilo mouths months of rivers is there them any land susceptible of cultivation and but a small proportion of that could be plowed d they are covered with a dense growth of vegetation froh fro from ni the waters edge to the summit of the mountains cotton only yields about 1000 ibs lbs to th tild the acre in id the seed geed ibs lbs ginned cotton has broken every person that has lias engaged in its cultivation dried co chanut is the tile principal article oc of trade which is shipped directly to europe for the oil it contains it brings in europe about per ton of ofa 9 zoo ibs lbs this tim trade is done mostly by a german gennan nirm firm who have been engaged in the south pacific island trade for the last thirty year yearks there is no inducement for people to emigrate here from orom america there ia is no sugar land on the group for the reason that it is too rocky to plow the land is very much like the best of timber land that sk skirts irta the base of mauna loa on hawaii more rocks than soil the natives are a proud race with so much nobility among them thern that they cannot agree MR that any one should be king or governor hence they are incessantly quarreling and fighting they have been fighting for four years sears but there has been a cessation of hostilities since our arrival they are a good deal like the old effete nobility of some of the states of europe more nobility than honor and they consider a fore foreigner ner a just subject of prey they thoy have become art great at thieves either by the influence of foreigners or else eise by nature I 1 have my theory of their becoming so but will not express it here they wear but little clothing a piece of cloth or a braid of leaves maves wrapped around the loins men and women alike thus verifying the poets dream that beauty is adorned the most they believe in fashion too and are great gnat on the blonde bionde tiie tile they color their beautiful black hair a dm dingy gy blonde or yellow by work working hig into it the milk of lime limp lett iett letting ilig if it remain for two or tb tiree ree dayland day sand then washing it out with sour om orange lyge juice the women cut their haip hail hair ea close aee some home of the nien men let lei the theirs irs grow afoot a foot pr or mope mome more which whick 4 gives their head beads the appear appearance appe of huge brushes and when in in pro process Q ess of colorin coloring 9 they look i as though they had been beep dipp dipped edin in a tuh tub of whitewash how m much uell it would have say bay sayed saved ed the am american beauties if they had bad kno known wn this thi 4 simple simpie r receipt during the blonde epidemic era epA emic emie there isquia is quite quito a variety of shell sheil bish fish here some of which are arem very kery curious curl curi ous one that is peculiar to the these se islands ita its aits home is ozithe on the coral eoral reefs and it crawls about the intricacies and cavities of the rocky habitations of the coral inject the shells are very beautiful and sometimes one can al most decipher the tho char character acte T as though 1 they thes were letters indeed I 1 it t leold yo lequire require no greater tre stretch of 1 imagination i iiii than nit it does addo tado to decipher so some sobe m d offu of our ees eek fis or some gome so called spirit writing brt but the mot most curious olis part p 0 of f the creat creature ure pre As Is its head 0 on n the fhe he top of which if one may a y use the term to a shell nish fish t that aate m grows on the ro rocks eks is is p a 6 hard thick convex piece ilece of shell much thicker than the othar exactly 4 fitting the ortho of the tho shell sheil and band when it is drawn in it closes the shell perfectly water wamen M ater aten tig tight at thus ir present ing n fo to its finn finh ninny finny enemies in iqs is nothing bu but A a ba hard rd ii incrustation crust aution altion that promises no nothing amii palatable another curious feature of the convex shell abell is that it is of a blumish grien green surrounded by a strip artrip of white which makes this valve look exactly like the eye of an an animal lulal lulai hence they arm are called eye ese stones they bemused were werf euse fuse d b the natives as money before the American americans sand and other nations odthe of the east ii introduced gold and aud silver sliver coin coin coln much so sought bought ug lit after aati 17 jas acob ob of curios curiosity 1 itkind and are worked into silver siler b buttons aud and other ar articles of ornament of civilization them there ksavery is a very veny amusing erea crea creature ture tuie here which I 1 belleve believe is called the h hermit c mb crab this little creature may be seen on the beach of different en sizes ture b has m no not provided it i 7 with a hell shelf hence it has ha s the capacity to fit itself to app aps other fishes shell and as we walk along the beach we see bee all manner of shells suddenly endowed with locomotive powers and when we pick one u up p we vve discover that the cause causo of this apparent lent resurrection of dead shells is the quiet possession by one of those lively little crabs as snugly fitted to the thel shell as if it had been made mado for it it is Js very amusing to collect a number of different kinds of shells with these crabs in them and see them walk off with as comical and glo gio grotesque tesque an appearance as a procession ro cession of ladies dressed in the N different fashions that have been in vogue for the last forty years some showing a BK shell long iong any tny 2 ay like the cowery while others with shells which would give the resemblance of the grecian bend these crabs are to be found of all sizes from that of a bee to that of a rat they can leave the sli sll shell sheil ell eil at pleasure and do so often of ten in stormy veather weather therbur they burrow ra in the ground in fair weather ther they take tako to a sh shell sheil ell eil and andio to the fi water va and make on land the shell is a protection against nish fish and birds put out 0 a num number cr of sh shells sheils ells elis in a clear night of all able shapes and sizes size and these crabs would fit themselves to them and would all travel and present as comical a scene as can well be ima lma imag P ined t sometimes they will from necess necessity ty it is pres presumed umea take up an old broken shell when they make a s seedy ged ped I 1 appe appearance arap ce like ilke an old od bummer zat that has been jeen on a 0 spree for a month at other othen we find them with a bright new shell when they look as neat a a dry goods clerk on a saturday night after lie receives his months salary NV 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