14 



and canes for eating. The Fijians are very fond of 

 the sugar cane, and never seem tired of eating it — 

 sucking its sweet juice and throwing the pith away. 

 When going from place to place, they frequently 

 carry large quantities of it to use on the way, in 

 order to beguile the tedium of the journey, and to 

 give as a present to friends and acquaintances. For 

 such purposes it is largely used on festive occasions, 

 and the quantity of cane which a Fijian will con- 

 sume in an idle hour, or while listening to a story, 

 astonished me. 



The canoe was soon got under weigh ; the large tri- 

 angular shaped sail was hoisted, and the breeze being 

 favourable and not much sea, the 7 miles were run 

 over in about 40 minutes. On the way I noticed 

 several settlers' houses, native villages, small groves of 

 cocoa-nut trees, and land cleared for young plantations 

 at various places along the shore. At this part of 

 the island the land is narrow. It is in reality an 

 isthmus, only about 3 miles broad from Natawa 

 bay to the main ocean on the south-western side of 

 Vanua Levu. The character of the country is hilly. 

 The low hills are densely covered with long grass and 

 occasional patches of forest, but the soil is good, and 

 cocoa-nuts could be more extensively planted there 

 than they are. Some of the sheltered valleys are 

 also suitable for coffee, the Libcrian species would 



-i likely answer best, and in a few places good 



»ar cane could be grown. 



Vuui Bawani is a low lying place not more than 

 _ eel above high water. The village is built upon 

 land, which had recently been a tiri, or mangrove 

 swamp; a place where one might fairly expect to find 

 malarial lever prevalent, did such exist at all in Fiji. 



