18 



dredged out to enable it to receive large vessels. 

 Several of the settlers in this vicinity have herds of 

 fine cattle. Cocoa-nut plantations could be largely ex- 

 tended on the low hills that in some places border the 

 hay. 



A kind friend sent nie across the bay in his boat, 

 which landed me at Wai-waij near TTai Levu, on its 

 northern shore. Here an enterprising young settler 

 has bought land, on which he has built a small sugar 

 mill, and is growing cane and coffee, the former on 

 the rich alluvium at the base of the hills, and the latter 

 in the sheltered and fertile valleys. Cocoa-nut trees 

 abound on the shore, but there is room for more ex- 

 tensive plantations of this valuable tree. The low lying 

 undulating country extending from this place to the 

 Bua mountains, a distance of 50 miles, is well watered, 

 and suited both by climate and soil for growing sugar 

 cane, cacoa, Liberian coffee, &c, with a broad fringe 

 of cocoa-nut trees along the coast. Tracts of this fine 

 land belong to settlers, many of whom are too poor to 

 do anything with it, even if they were willing and^had 

 the necessary knowledge and skill. The greater part 

 of it, however, belongs to natives, who annually clear 

 portions of it on which to grow their food plants, allow- 

 ing the portions already used to relapse into jungle. 



I stayed a week in this locality, arranging the 

 specimens collected on the way from Rabi, and 

 making excursions into the mountain forests. I may 

 remark that the farther I proceeded from that island 

 the more numerous did plants, which I had not 

 observed upon it, become. I also found that the speci- 

 mens already collected were drying badly, — becom- 

 ing mouldy and the leaves dropping off on account of 

 the heal and moisture, notwithstanding the changing 



