INSULAR AUSTRALASIA. 



1259 



The climate during eight or nine months of the year, from April to December, 

 excluding a part of November, is on the whole extremely pleasant. The heat is not 

 excessive, being tempered by the steady trade-winds. On the larger islands a cool land- 

 breeze generally sets in not long after sunset, and the thermometer never marks the 

 excessive heat which 

 it sometimes regis- 

 ters during the sum- 

 mer months in New 

 South Wales and 

 Victoria, while the 

 general temperature 

 is much lower than 

 that of those parts 

 of Queensland which 

 lie within the same 

 parallel of latitude. 

 The range of the 

 thermometer is re- 

 markably small, be- 

 ing from sixty de- 

 grees to eighty-seven 

 degrees in the shade, 

 with a mean of 

 seventy-seven de- 

 grees. The annual 

 rain-fall varies con- 

 siderably in different 

 parts of the Group, 

 but it may be rough- 

 ly estimated at about 

 ninety inches. The 

 climate is by no 

 means unhealthy, 

 though doubtless re- 

 laxing, especially to 



the female constitution. Children of white parents, born and reared in Fiji, appear to be 

 healthy enough ; but they lack colour, and the early decay of even their milk-teeth, 

 observed in many cases, shows that something else is lacking. Intermittent fever, so 

 common in the groups farther north, was unknown in Fiji until imported specimens of 

 it began to appear. Low fever also, which has been prevalent of late years, especially 

 at Suva, is probably either an importation, or the result of the decay of vegetable 

 matter consequent on the extensive clearings. Dysentery and phthisis are the most fatal 

 diseases among the natives ; ophthalmia, elephantiasis and leprosy appear in all parts of 

 the Group. But though the natives seem to be especially liable to phthisis, the equable 



A FIJIAN MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 



