322 A NATURALIST OX THE " CHALLENGER." 



Japanese wooden bell, or narrow-mouthed wooden drum, seems 

 to be merely a more perfect development of these drums, and 

 no doubt the actual bell was derived from the copying of some 

 such wooden instrument in metal. The addition of a clapper to 

 a bell is a late improvement. Japanese bells still have none, 

 but are sounded by means of a beam of wood, swung against 

 them from outside. The term " drum " should perhaps be 

 restricted to instruments with a tense membrane. 



As a musical instrument, our ordinary English Chapel Bell 

 is much on a par with the Fijian drum, and makes an equally 

 uncultivated and unpleasant noise. 



The great river, the Eewa Eiver, or Wai Levu (great water) 

 opens into the sea by several mouths. We ascended by the 

 northernmost. About the mouth of the river the land is flat 

 and alluvial, and the river is bordered on either hand by a thick 

 growth of mangroves. Below these trees, slimy mud slopes are 

 left bare at low tide, on which a Periophthalmus* hops about on 

 the feed just as a frog might hop about. Close to the sea the 

 mud is covered with a sea grass (Halophila), and hence looks 

 greenish when left uncovered. Ducks {Anas superciliosa) are 

 common on the mud at the river's brink, as is also a Heron 

 (Demiegretta sacra), which pitches often in the Mangroves. The 

 Ptilotis sings amongst these mangroves, and the Parrot Platycercus 

 splendens screams amongst them. 



After a stay at ISTovaloa, where there is a mission college for 

 training native teachers, and where Fijians learn even rudimen- 

 tary algebra, we drifted up with the rising tide, grounding 

 once and having to wait an hour to float off again. We passed 

 many villages, and several canoes full of people. We slept at 

 Nadawa, where a small paddle steamer, the property of a trader 

 living there, Mr. Page, and built by him there, was under repairs 

 and waiting for new engines from Sydney. Here also was a 

 sort of Hotel kept by two Englishmen. Mr. Page, who was 

 extremely hospitable, gave me a bed. 



In the morning we had to beat against the land breeze up 

 the main river, which we had entered just below Nadawa. The 

 Wai Levu is a fine large river, in some reaches 300 yards across, 



* See page 296. 



