28 A MISSION TO VITI. 



classic story, but never seems to meet with nowadays. 

 As we were taking our luncheon, the Queen asked nu- 

 merous questions about our system of monogamy. For 

 her part, she could never bring herself really to esteem 

 a man contented with one wife, and she was glad her 

 husband was a polygamist. Of course we tried to con- 

 vince her of our way of looking upon the subject, but, 

 having fairly refuted our assumption that women do not 

 like to see their husband's affection distributed over a 

 whole harem, she almost got the best of the argument. 



After another hour's scramble we reached the summit, 

 and found it to all appearance a large extinct crater 

 filled with water, and on the north-eastern part covered 

 with a vegetable mass, so much resembling in colour 

 and appearance the green fat of the turtle, as to have 

 given rise to the popular belief that the fat of all the 

 turtles eaten in Fiji is transported hither by superna- 

 tural agency, which is the reason why on the morning 

 after a turtle-feast the natives always feel very hungry. 

 This jelly-like mass is several feet thick, and entirely 

 composed of some microscopic cryptogams, which, from 

 specimens I submitted to the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, 

 a weighty authority in these matters, proved to be 

 Hoomospora transversalis of Brebisson, and the repre- 

 sentative of quite a new genus, named Hoomonema 

 fluitanS) Berkl. A tall species of sedge was growing 

 among them, and gave some degree of consistency to 

 the singular body. We were not aware until it was too 

 late that these strange productions were only floating 

 on the top of the lake and forming a kind of crust, or 

 else we should not have ventured upon it. On the con- 



