ISTHMUS OF YARABALE. 141 



four miles long, stretching from east to west, and being 

 contracted about the centre into the narrow isthmus of 

 Yarabali, literally " Haul-across," so named from the fact 

 of canoes and boats being dragged across it, in order to 

 save the trouble and escape the danger of a long pas- 

 sage around the east and west point. Colonel Smythe 

 and myself, in company with Mr. Royce, crossed it on 

 the 16th of August, and found the northern portion of 

 the isthmus a fine avenue of cocoa-nut palms, the south- 

 ern more or less a mangrove swamp. A similar short 

 cut for canoes is effected at Naceva Bay in Vanua Levu. 

 On both sides of Yarabali there is a bay ; the northern, 

 Na Malata, is shallow and open ; the southern, Ga loa, 

 has deep water, good anchorage, and three passages 

 through the reef outside, which acts as a natural break- 

 water. We found its shores full of pumice-stone, drifted 

 here from the Tongan volcanoes. The different explor- 

 ing expeditions having quite overlooked this fine bay, 

 Mr. Pritchard made a rough survey in 1858, it being not 

 improbable that if the much discussed communication 

 between Sydney and Western America the shortest 

 route to England should be established vid Fiji, steam- 

 ers would prefer calling at this southernmost bay, with 

 plenty of sea-room outside, to running the risk of en- 

 tering the labyrinth of rocks, shoals, and reefs, which 

 render the navigation of the central parts of the group, 

 in the absence of a complete chart, a rather difficult 

 task. 



Ga loa, or Black Duck Bay, derives its name from the 

 largest of three islands situated in it. Ga loa island is 

 two hundred feet high, about a mile long, and half a 



