1840.] IMPORTANT ISLANDS. 327 



sufficient depth of soil to support vegetation ; and others are 

 half concealed by the combing waves that spend their fury in 

 impotent efforts to destroy the labors of the tiny zoophyte, 

 In addition to the reefs, there are sunken patches of branch- 

 ing coral, whose brilliant colors of pink and purple, brown, 

 green, white, and yellow, seem like reflections in the clear 

 water, or like the enchanted palaoes of tritons and mermaids. 



The most important islands of the eastern group are Fu- 

 langa, Kambara, Lakemba, and Vanua-valavo. Fulanga is 

 of a semi-circalar form, and is rough and uneven ; its bluffs 

 rising to the height of one hundred and fifty feet above the 

 level of the sea. Kambara is three and a half miles long and 

 two miles wide : it is three hundred and fifty feet above the 

 ocean, and clothed to its topmost heights with the richest 

 verdure. Lakemba is the largest island in the eastern group ; 

 its highest peak has an altitude of over seven hundred feet ; 

 it is five miles long and three in width, and is well wooded 

 and highly productive. Quite a number of converted Ton- 

 gese reside on Lakemba, and their example, with the efforts 

 of the missionaries, has produced a most happy change in the 

 conduct and appearance of the native population. Vanua- 

 valavo is in the shape of a half-moon ; it is quite narrow, but 

 fourteen miles in length, and beautifully fringed with bread- 

 fruits, cocoas, and palms. 



Vuna is twenty-five miles in length, from north to south, 

 and five miles wide. It is separated from Vanua-levui, or 

 the "large land," by the straits of Somu-Somu, which are five 

 miles in width at the narrowest point. It has a central 

 ridge, over two thousand feet high, almost always shrouded 

 in dense masses of clouds, which slopes down gradually on 

 every side to the beach ; but it is generally far more level 

 than the other islands, and in consequence contains a much 

 greater proportion of land adapted to cultivation. — The gen- 

 eral direction of Vanua-levui is from east to west : it is 

 shaped like an elongated heart, with its opening, Natava 

 Bay, facing the north-east ; and including all its indentations, 

 it cannot be far from two hundred and fifty miles in circum- 



