Coco, sago, and other palms are largely grown; ebony wood and bamboo is exported in large quantities, as well as copra and mother-of-pearl shells, which the natives collect for exchange against European goods. The hills are densely wooded with tropical vegetation, but in the clearings a good many cattle and goats are kept. With Long and Dampier Islands, German New Guinea is 70,000 square miles in extent, and has a population of 530,000 natives, besides 700 whites, of whom 90 per cent. come from the Fatherland. In the same year that Germany absorbed the above-mentioned colony at the back-door of the Australian continent, she also took over the closely adjoining Bismarck Archipelago, containing 20,000 square miles. Here again the soil is fertile from the seashore up to the mountain ranges, where gold in paying quantities has been found. The islands, which are of very varied sizes, export cotton, coffee, copra, and rubber, the latter chiefly grown by a white population numbering under 500. The natives, with a considerable intermixture of Chinese, number 188,000. The seat of the Government, both for the Archipelago and Kaiser Wilhelm Land, is Herbertshöhe, in the main island. Still further to the south-east a part of the Solomon group is under the Teutonic flag, including the considerable islands of Bougainville and Buka, both doing a large trade in sandal wood, tortoiseshell, and other tropical products. The Caroline, Ladrone, and Pelew Islands, in all 160 square miles, and the Marshall Islands, 160 square miles in extent, all form part of the German New Guinea Protectorate. Amongst the largest of these is Babelthuap, the remainder ranging downwards in size to uninhabited coral or volcanic rocks scattered about the waste of Pacific waters. Their total white population is not more than 1,500. In the Samoan group Germany was, until early in September, a neighbour of the United States, her possessions here including Savaii and Upolu. She obtained them in November, 1899. The former has an area of 660 and the latter of 340 square miles, the native inhabitants being respectively 12,800 and 20,600, the Europeans numbering about 500. All the islands are extremely productive, copra and cocoa beans being chief articles of export, while a considerable trade in rubber has lately arisen. Wireless stations exist at Apia, the capital, as at Nauru, in the Marshall Islands. Some time after the outbreak of war an expedition was sent against Samoa from New Zealand, and on Thursday, September 3rd, a message reached the Governor at Wellington to the effect that the German Governor of Samoa had surrendered, and had been sent with other prisoners to Fiji. The landing of troops was carried out with great expedition, and the Union Jack was hoisted at half-past twelve on the afternoon of August 29th.