THE VICTOKIAN NATURALIST. 93 



less difficulty in bearing pain. Wounds hardly appear to trouble the 

 South Sea Islanders, they heal so quickly. Parturition descends to the 

 brute level. In a word, the more civilized and refined socially and 

 intellectually, the more keen the sensibilities to pain. And lice 

 V'Tsa. Draw the argument further. Drop from reason-endowed 

 savage man to the simple instinct-endowed brute. If the sensibility 

 to pain be so dull in savage man, as compared to refined and 

 c'vilized man ; how much more dull must it be in the non-reason- 

 endowed brute, as compared with the reason-endowed savage. And 

 all Nature bears out the correctness of this theory. Crabs, spiders, 

 insects, &c., lose their legs, arms, claws, and apparently without 

 inconvenience or discomfort. A worm is cut into two, wriggles and 

 becomes two creatures instead of one. In fact, pain is not a cruelty 

 iniiicted upon Nature by a selfish Creator. It is an animal self- 

 preservative and a moral refining attribute. It is developed only in 

 proportion as it is needed for the protection and well-being, or for 

 the intellectual and spiritual development of the creature, and 

 is abundantly counterbalanced by the pleasures and enjoyments of 

 existence. 



The Fijis are mostly of volcanic origin. The soil is deep and 

 rich. The vegetation everywhere is rank and luxuriant, Trees of 

 numerous and divei'S-shnped leaves vary the scene. Limes, lemons, 

 and shaddocks grow wild, and in the richest profusion. Cocoanut 

 palms stud tlie sea coasts. Bananas are cultivated in great variety. 

 The bread-fruit tree is plentiful around the native villages:. Numerous 

 varieties of Hibiscus adorn the native homesteads. Many wax-like 

 white flowers, arboreal and herbaceous, please the eye and jDerfume 

 the air. Here wedding bouquets could be quickly arranged from 

 Nature's labyrinths. A combination of aromatic odours and spotless 

 white. Life here lives rapidly. Origin, existence, death, and decay 

 follow each other in quick succession. Pyrale moths in multitudes 

 frequent the low and swampy ground. Up they rise as we carefully 

 step over the grassy tussocks. Here is a large-sized specimen, with 

 club-shaped patterns printed on the front wings. There a delicate white 

 plume. There a golden orange. There a pearly white. There a black 

 chimney sweep. And there a minutesimal, patterned like a pheasant's 

 tail. Tussocks of ferns and reed-like plants give shelter to silvery 

 y's, rich orange, dark brown, wainscoat marbled, and other species 

 ■of Nocture moths. While beautiful Euploea butterflies, and brown 

 and blue Danaidaj gracefully play among the flowers. 



Anxious to see the interior, and there being no roads in Fiji, I had to 

 follow the example of all explorers and avail myself of a water way. I 

 elected to ascend the Rewa river. This I did, as far as the mount- 

 ains. The river is broad, and in some places deep. Sharks and 

 dog-fish lurk near the mouth. Fresh-water species are found higher 

 up, and often make a meal of the natives when bathing. Fish 

 swarm. A species of lobster is highly prized by the natives. Fresh- 



