CLIMATE, SOIL, AND FLORA. 275 



121 Fahr. The country is remarkably free from fever, 

 that curse of the Samoan group, and the only dis- 

 ease Fijiansand Europeans have reason to fear is dysen- 

 tery, unknown, if a current belief may be relied upon, 

 before the visits of foreigners to these shores, and hence 

 often termed " the white man's disease " by the natives. 



The time from October till April is the hottest, that 

 extending over the other months the coolest, part of the 

 year. It is during the former when the most rain falls, 

 but the dry and rainy seasons do not strictly correspond 

 with this division, nor is the difference between the wet 

 and dry very marked. There are occasional showers 

 during the so-called dry season in all parts of the group, 

 and in localities like the Straits of Somosomo they may 

 even be termed frequent. The fine weather is expected 

 to set in about May. June, July, August, September, 

 and October, are generally dry, and from their low tem- 

 perature looked forward to by European settlers. How 

 many inches of rain annually fall has not been ascer- 

 tained ; nor would a gauge kept in a single locality only 

 give a fair approximate result of the average amount, 

 since the difference of the meteorological conditions ex 

 isting between the leeward and windward islands, the 

 lee side and the weather side of the larger islands, are 

 too great.* 



Speaking generally, the Vitian islands may be said to 



* A gauge, kept by tlie Rev. Mr. Whitley (probably at Levuka, B.S.), 

 showed that ninety inches of rain had fallen in six months, and four in 

 the night of February 12th, 1860. This statement I find in an obscure 

 publication, the ' Primitive Methodist Juvenile Magazine,' London, 1862, 

 rol. xi. p. 50. Not having seen it confirmed, it may possibly be incorrect, 

 like several others in the article from which it is taken. 



T 2 



