1840.J RIVE US AND STREAMS. 329 



for its manufacture of mats ami baskets ; it has two elevated 

 peaks, and its scenery partakes of the same general character 

 of that of the other islands. — Goro, about fifteen miles north 

 of Nairai, is one of the most fruitful of the Feejee islands ; 

 it is nine and a half miles long and four miles wide ; the sur- 

 face is high but not much broken, and from the tops of its 

 loftiest hills to the foaming breakers, it presents a most abun- 

 dant vegetation. — From fifteen to eighteen miles west of Viti- 

 levui, is a long chain of rocky islands, all of volcanic forma- 

 tion, extending in a north-easterly direction from thirty to 

 forty miles, which are classed together as the Assua Group. 

 There are fewer reefs to obstruct the navigation in the vicin- 

 ity of these islands, and on the west there are no sea-reefs of 

 importance. Many of them are inhabited, but all are rugged 

 and broken, their mountain peaks sometimes rising to the 

 height of sixteen hundred feet. 



Almost all the islands are well watered. The numerous 

 valleys that intersect the slopes and plains along the coasts, 

 often form the channels of streams that carry off the surplus 

 waters of the interior, of which there is usually an abundance, 

 and dispense their grateful moisture, lavishly and without 

 stint, as they wend their way to the ocean. In the two 

 larger islands there are several considerable rivers, which may 

 be navigated for some distance in boats. Mbua Bay, at the 

 western end of Vanua-levui, receives the waters of two or 

 three large rivers, one of which is two hundred feet wide at 

 its mouth. Wai-levu river is the most considerable stream 

 on the island of Viti-levui: it rises in the mountains, and, 

 after tumbling over a precipice seven hundred feet high, di- 

 vides into two branches, about forty-three miles from its mouth, 

 the larger of which enters the sea at Rewa on the southern 

 shore of the island, and the other at Indimbi, ten miles fur- 

 ther to the west. For eight miles above Rewa, the river is 

 lined with rich alluvial flats, intersected with a great number 

 of creeks, either tributaries to the main stream, or diverging 

 from it.* 



* The boats of the American Squadron ascended the Wai-levu for a distance 



