These people of New Caledonia were very like negroes in appearance, but their head hair grew much longer and the men had abundant beards. The men went nearly naked, the women wore a short petticoat. Their language seemed to be a mixture between that of the Melanesians of the New Hebrides and the Polynesians of New Zealand. As regards weapons, they had something like a boomerang, and a wooden club shaped like a pickaxe. They used slings and stones, harpoons for striking fish, spears and darts. Their houses were circular, but kept full of smoke from the ever-burning fire in order to drive away the mosquitoes. They had clumsy dug-out canoes, generally used double, secured to each other by cross spars which projected a foot over each side. On these spars would be laid a deck or platform made of planks, on which they could even have a hearth of clay with a fire burning on it. These canoes were navigated by one or two lateen sails. Bananas and sugar cane were here, and also bread-fruit and coconuts, but all such things very scarce, and the natives lived chiefly on roots, the bark of a tree, which they roasted and chewed, and on fish. They had no other drink but water. The coasts of New Caledonia, however, were beset with reefs and shoals, so that it was practically impossible for a sailing ship like the _Resolution_ to make any close survey without running risks of being lost altogether. Cook therefore sailed away from New Caledonia, and discovered the Isle of Pines at its southern extremity: a series of islets, really, on which grew very tall conifers.[102] One little island, scarcely more than three-quarters of a mile round, was covered with a forest of these tall pines 60 to 70 feet in height. The wood was white, close-grained, tough and light, and exuded turpentine. On this southward cruise Cook, curiously enough, missed seeing the Loyalty Islands, which lie at no great distance to the east of New Caledonia, almost midway between New Caledonia and New Zealand. But he discovered Norfolk Island, which was uninhabited. Here his people noticed the aloe-like "flax" plant of New Zealand and a great abundance of splendid pine trees--the now celebrated Norfolk Island pine (_Araucaria excelsa_). The woods were full of pigeons, parrots, rails, and small birds. There were also "cabbage" palms, not thicker than a man's leg, and from 10 to 20 feet high, probably of the _Areca_ genus, "with large pinnated fronds". [102] There is an extraordinary development of southern conifers in New Caledonia and the adjacent islands and islets. They belong to the genera _Araucaria_ (eight species), _Podocarpus_ (seven species), _Agathis_, _Dacrydium_, _Libocedrus_ (five species), _Callitris_, and _Acmopyle_, a remarkable assemblance for a land area of about 6450 square miles.