34 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
ters. Mr. Pilling is a graduate of Oxford where he made a fine 
athletic record; a gentlemanly, clear-eyed fellow with a genial 
smile and an efficient way of looking after strangers. He sum- 
moned some bushy-haired Fijians to take our luggage ashore, talk- 
ing their own language and acting as interpreter for us. The 
formalities at the customs house on the wharf were soon over. We 
sent our luggage on ahead and walked to the hotel, about a mile 
distant. We found the heat rather uncomfortable at first, al- 
though it was winter in that latitude, and welcomed the cool, 
shady verandas of the Grand Pacific set in picturesque grounds 
on the shore of one of the inner reaches of the harbor. 
In the afternoon we called on our good friend Colonial Seere- 
tary Fell, whom we had last seen at far distant Barbados four 
years before, and talked over our plans. In his office was a 
Fijian with a most imposing head of hair and extremely dig- 
nified bearing. We afterward became well acquainted with him 
and succeeded in securing a photograph, largely for the sake of 
his hair, which illustrates the typical Fijian head-dress at its best. 
Later Mr. Fell took us on a delightful auto ride along a road 
following the shore and then inland where it penetrated the bush 
among the foothills thus giving us a taste of the jungle with its 
wealth of luxurious tropical vegetation almost unmodified py man. 
The little island of Makuluva was pointed out to us in the dis- 
tanee and, of course, I was interested in what was to be my home 
during about half our stay in Fiji. There were several Indian 
villages along the road and one that was typically Fijian. Mr. 
Fell told us that there were few mosquitos and no venomous snakes 
on Vitilevu, which is notably free from harmful insects or other 
pestiferous things which make one uncomfortable. The Indians 
(or ‘‘Hindus,’’ as we would eall them) are of lighter build than 
the Fijians and not so guileless, as was indicated by their faces, 
which often had a erafty expression. Many of them, having 
served their time under the indenture system, were about to start 
back for India the next day. 
Government House had burned down recently, and Mr. Fell was 
living on a Government yacht, having turned over his residence 
to the Governor. 
The Grand Pacific Hotel is one of the most imposing structures 
that we saw in Fiji. The servants are all Indians with pictur- 
esque costumes of white and red fezes and sashes of blue and 
yellow. We Americans were insatiably thirsty and found it hard 
