. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 492 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, I88S. December 26.—Our native contingent deserted iu a body at daylight on the plea that their religious convictions would not permit them to work on Sunday. Remonstrances and arguments were in vain, and we had to permit them to depart after exacting a promise that they would return early the next morning. Luka, the chief guide, lingered a while to state that his family burial place was beneath the great platf
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 492 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, I88S. December 26.—Our native contingent deserted iu a body at daylight on the plea that their religious convictions would not permit them to work on Sunday. Remonstrances and arguments were in vain, and we had to permit them to depart after exacting a promise that they would return early the next morning. Luka, the chief guide, lingered a while to state that his family burial place was beneath the great platform of Tongariki, and that he had a decided aversion to having the skulls of his ancestors added to our collection. Sunday inspection and its attendant functions has through long cus- tom become second nature with the men who have been long in the serv- ice, and through the desire to thus mark the day, the most valuable of our geological specimens were lost. The boatswain's mate took ad- vantage of our temporary absence to clean up the cave and make it more presentable, and, in doing so, threw all the stones and "trash" into the sea. Nothing could be said, in view of the fact that it was done with the best possible intentions, but he was greatly chagrined to find that those same stones had been carried over many a weary mile to be lost now, when it was impossible to obtain duplicates or other specimens of some of the peculiar formations met with on the tirst days of the trip. RANA RORAKA. The day was devoted to the examination of the inside of the crater of Eana Roraka. The walls of the crater are very abrupt except on the west side, where the lava-flow escaped to the sea, and here the c;ittle and horses find easy access to the pool of water that has collected iu the bottom. High up on the southern side are the workshops of the image-builders, extending in irregular terraces quite to the top. Here we found images in all stages of incompletion (Fig. 10), from the rud
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