94 THK AlCTOEIAN NATURALIST. 



water mussels of different species abound ; and heaps of shells 

 remind one of the sliell mounds of primitive man. Bamboos 

 come floating down the river. At first as we ascend the 

 banks are flat. This country is the seat of the sugar industry. 

 A splendid climate and soil for the same, but not I think at present 

 likely to make the fortunes of adventurers. All social and political 

 matters are at sixes and sevens and in one vast unrest. I sailed 

 up the Rewa in a native canoe, with two Fijian boys. We passed 

 a beautiful banyan tree. Its branches covered nearly lialf an acre. 

 Within was a spacious reception hall, such as might have gladdened 

 the hearts of Hereward or Robin Hood. Branches and trunks in- 

 tertwined in all directions. 1 had no difficulty in scaling these 

 natural ladders. Delicate orchids, reminding one of the lily of the 

 valley, grew in dense clusters. Luxuriant polypodies, graceful 

 aspleniums, grass-like Schizteas and other ferns, hung from the 

 crevices. Delicate and choice clubmosses waved in the breeze. In fact, 

 this magnificent tree was one mass of vivid green. It was loaded with 

 flowers, ferns, clubmosses, lichens, mosses, and fungi. Beautiful 

 parrots lodged in its Ijranches. Gentle pigeons chose its shelter for 

 a resting place. Beneath and around were their feeding grounds, 

 the sugar cane fields, and bordering copse. Two species of ants 

 swarm in Fiji. You shoot one of these honey-feeding parrots, and 

 lay it down on a table, or hang it up suspended by a string. In a 

 few minutes its mouth is full of ants sucking the sugar juice as it 

 drops from the everted crop. You catch some lovely moths, put 

 them in your collecting box, and in a few minutes they have dis- 

 appeared ; picked to pieces by swarms of ants as minute as a pin's 

 head. You seek to avoid the recurrence of this misfortune, and }nn 

 a number of specimens in an air-tight box. In a day or two you 

 open your box to put by more specimens, and oh, sorrow, all are one 

 mass of mould. You go to a copse, and beneath the pleasant shade 

 of overhanging trees you watch the tliick underscrub. Before you 

 is a moth, with wings set and at rest. Oh how fine. Here is a 

 rarity. Take care. You advance cautiously. You strike. The 

 moth remains on the leaf. Puzzled you look, and lo, the glorious 

 catch is a delusion. The specimen is dead. But agglutinated to 

 the leaf, and curiously ]iatterned by a prolific and hardening fungus. 

 No ants seem to have pluck to attack. No spiders a})pear to covet 

 the meal. And there in the midst of rapid decay, this moth remains 

 mummified. I saw several moths thus attacked and embalmed. 



As we approach more hilly pai'ts, steep cliffs with dripping water, 

 give homestead to trembling nmidenhairs, two species very common. 

 Here and there waterfalls delight the eye and cool the atmosphere. 

 Graceful tree ferns flutter their fairy-like fronds in the breeze, 

 Slender palms nod their waving crests, or give forth the aroma of 

 curious and beautiful clusters of flowers. Black green hyraeno- 

 phyllums stud the damp ground. Or the more delicate ones cover 



