LIFE IN LEVUKA. 51 



their crass ignorance, think a meal of eggs poached and boiled, 

 bacon fried, or cured ham, chops and steaks, curries, and pre- 

 served salmon ' fixed ' in half a dozen ways, tea and coffee, 

 watercress and oranges, is good enough for them. 



A day in a Levukan boarding-house may not be uninterest- 

 ing to my readers. You are awakened about six a.m. by your 

 ' boy ' (or native servant) bringing the matutinal tea ; and you 

 put on a pair of light shoes or slippers, and start for the falls 

 although it should be added that all the hotels, etc., have 

 excellent baths, shower and otherwise. A good quarter of a 

 mile in rear of town and hospital is a most delightful waterfall, 

 some 3 feet in breadth (I have seen it 4) by some 10 feet in 

 height. This falls into a pool about 20 feet in circumference 

 and 4 to 5 feet in depth. A cave of refuge lies to the rear of 

 the waterfall, and it makes a capital bathing-place. Surrounded 

 by the most exquisite tropical foliage, with views extending all 

 down the Totoga valley, added to clear, and, for the tropics, 

 ice-cold water, the bathing-hole of the southern Levukans has 

 no parallel except in that paradise of bathing-places, Waitova, 

 described by the late Commodore Goodenough as his ideal of a 

 perfect bathing locality. 



About 2 miles from the centre of the town are these falls of 

 Waitova. They are approached by a gradual ascent through a 

 dense mass of the most luxuriant vegetation, terminating in 

 some extensive patches of taro, which the natives have shown 

 skill in irrigating. Leaving these, you find a steeper ascent, 

 and then skirt a rocky promontory, on the sides of which a 

 few steps have been cut. Behind this rocky guardian is a 

 large-sized and most magnificent pool, shallow as you approach 

 it from the rock, but of great depth at the other end. It is 

 surrounded on both sides by precipitous hills, clothed to their 

 summits with the richest trees, plants, and flowers, and backed 



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