INTRODUCTION THE SUBJECT, METHOD AND SCOPE OF THIS CHE coastal populations of the South Sea Islands, with very few exceptions, are, or were before their extinction, expert gators and traders. Several of them had evolved excellent types of large sea-going canoes, and used to embark in them n distant trade expeditions or raids of war and conquest The Papuo-Melanesians, who inhabit the coast and the out lying islands of New Guinea, are no exception to this rule. In aring sailors, industrious man and keen traders. The manufacturing centres of important Eart erek miadwvineaol ast valued ornaments, are localised in several places, according to the skill of the inhabitants, their inherited tribal tradition und special facilities offered by the district; thence they are traded over wide areas, sometimes travelling more than hundreds of miles Definite forms of exchange along definite trade to be found established between the various tribes. A most tradition The native names and t heu nP on ghn this and the follow maps iil-v show tb remarkable form of intertribal trade is that obtaining between native names as ascertained by myself and phonetically spelled the Motu of Port Moresby and the tribes of the Papuan Gulf The Motu sail for hundreds of miles in heavy, unwieldy canoes, called lakatoi, hich are provided with the characteristic b-claw sails. They bring pottery and shell ornaments, in Iden days, stone blades, to fre obtain in exchange sago and the heavy dug-outs, which are sed afterwards by the Motu for the construction of their lakatoi canoes The hiri, as these expeditions are called in Motuan, have been described ealth of detail and clearness of outli man's " The Melanesians of British New Guinea, Car