476 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



of the more open parts the vegetation has an Australian 

 character, owing to the presence of phyllodineous acacias, 

 two casuarinas, and several kinds of Metrosideros. On 

 the mountains above an elevation of 2000 feet we find 

 hollies ; myrtaceous, melastomaceous, and laurinaceous 

 trees ; epacridaceous and vaccinaceous bushes, with 

 bright -coloured orchids and delicate ferns and mosses ; 

 but no true alpine vegetation exists. 



Omitting the Chiroptera, the mammals seem to be 

 confined to three or four different species of rat, of 

 which one is possibly peculiar to the group. Among 

 the birds, which do not differ greatly from those of the 

 Tonga and Samoa groups, are no remarkably specialized 

 forms. 



The islands are rather rich in land-molluscs, which 

 show a distinct connection with the Australian molluscan 

 fauna. Most of the shells of the Tonga and Samoa 

 islands are found, but in addition the genera Placostylus, 

 Nanina, Diflointnatina, Piijpina, and Lagochcilus ; the 

 first-named, as in New Caledonia, being strongly repre- 

 sented. The genus Succinca, which is widely diffused 

 throughout the Pacific, has not yet been discovered, 

 Mr. A. Garrett in a recent list enumerates 146 

 species as known from the group, of which 85 are 

 peculiar to it. 



5. People. 



The Fijians are a dark-coloured, frizzly-haired, bearded 

 race, reproducing in the east the tall and muscular bodies 

 of the finest of the western Papuans, but much superior 

 to them both in regularity of feature and in degree 

 of civilisation. They exhibit, however, in some parts, 

 signs of intermixture with the Polynesians of Tonga 

 and Samoa, who long ago established colonies in the 



