Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

FRENCH MELANESIA. 341brooks api^ear to be fed by thermal springs. Owing to the absence of hills tointercept the rain-water, none of the Loyalty group have any permanent streams,while the moisture collected in the limestone cavities is so charged with impuritiesthat the natives mostly prefer cocoanut milk.Climate— Flora— Faiina.Lj'ing entirely within the torridzone, New Caledonia has a mean temjjeratureof over 70° F. But despite the moderating influence of the surrounding waters,the difference is considerable between that of summer and winter. The Australsummer is the season of rains, of variable winds and storms, which at times assumethe character of real hurricanes. But they are seldom felt in the northern partof the island, where the trade winds with their regular atmospheric phenomenaprevail during the summer months. Although the average rainfall is about 40inches, some districts, especially in the north, occasionally suffer from longdroughts.One of the most remarkable facts is the surjirisiug salubrity of New Caledonia.While so many other lands under the same equatorial zone are justly dreaded,especially by European settlers, white labourers can here till the soil withimpunity, at times even in marshy districts. This privileged climate can beexplained neither by the influence of the trades or the sea breezes, nor by theporous nature ofthe coralline coastlands, for the other oceanic regions within thetropics enjoy the same advantages. The fringing reefs, however, are all " living,"not "dead," corals, as in the New Hebrides. But according to the natives andcolonists, the true cause of the excellent climate is the nianU {melaleuca leiicadendron),a beneficent plant, which flourishes alike on the arid slopes and in theswampy tracts, and which would appear to be for New Caledonia what theeucalyptus is for Australia. This member of the myrtle family, which in appearanceresembles the birch, supplies to perfumery the volatile oil of the cayaput,like the other variety of melaleuca found in Burn, one of the Moluccas.While presenting great rliversity according to the varied nature of the soil,the New Caledonian flora is on the whole extremely rich, regard being had to thesmall extent of the island.Brongniart enumerates 1,300 species, of which 1,100 aredicotyledons, a fact which lends support to the theory that New Caledonia is buta surviving fragment of a much larger region now submerged. In the volcanicdistricts, the conifer, myrtle, and casua'rina families are represented by severalspecial forms ; but in the same districts there is an almost total absence of herbaceousvegetation, so that stock-breeding is here absolutely impossible. Even gardenscannot be laid out on this thankless soil.The sedimentary formfttions, which prevail in the northern districts, have adifferent flora in which both forest and grassy tyi^es are represented in greatvariety ; but here the indigenous vegetation has already been modified by conflagrationsand clearings, and partly replaced by intruding plants, which are everywhereencroaching on the older forms. Amongst them is the audropogon aUionii,