142 THB VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



touching sight. It was a small graveyard. There was the grave of 

 one of the pioneer missionaries, who died at his post. Here, and 

 side by side, an old cannibal chief, a little child, a reformed chief, a 

 christian native. The graves are marked off by tvooden rails. 

 Some are covered with stones in different colours and in simple 

 patterns. The Dracaena in generally planted in lieu of our ancestral 

 willow. The picture was rude, simple, but touching. 



I was rowed in a boat by a crew of seven to the island of Ovalau, 

 a distance of some 35 to 40 miles. On our journey, I landed on the 

 Island of Motariki. This is somewliat flat, is less frequented by the 

 white people and has not many inhabitants. There was a very good 

 sprinlding of shells on the shore, and large numbers of the young of 

 a delicate Pinna. 1 had to be carried »n shore, and after an hour's 

 rest to the boat again. We passed a beautiful white coral-sand 

 island. I pressed hard to be allowed to land. My efforts wei-e in 

 vain At length the chief man imitated the boat bumping, or as he 

 said, bung, bung, bung, against the reef, and I had to rest satisfied. 

 In due course we made Ovalau. It is a mountain rising 2000 feet 

 from the sea. It has a narrow coast line, and extends for 8 miles 

 across, and is some 12 to 14 miles in length. The scenery at 

 Levuka is simply splendid. World-wide travellers acknowledge it 

 to be, for its limits, the finest scenery known. It may be described 

 as a mountain with a central broken ridge or narrow table-land, and 

 2000 feet high. The sides are hollowed out into ravines and deep 

 hollows by numerous land-slips. These again, have been modified 

 and worn by the numerous mountain torrents. The central ridge or 

 table-land as it would at first be, is itself divided into steep and 

 rugged peaks by land-slips or upheaval. The whole island l^ears 

 evidence of long continued and violent volcanic action and earth- 

 quake. Perhaps in no other part of the world are so many mountain 

 spurs, wild and rugged precipices, steep slopes, deep dells, sunny 

 hollows, and wild watercourses interspersed so thickly together. 

 Rockti have been thrown down from the mountains into the hollows 

 below. And rocks are piled on rocks. Many still appear like a 

 mass of ashes just thrown out of an iron furnace. You can climb 

 almost up to the perpendicular. The native boys run like cats over 

 steeps 70° to 80°. If you wish to see a beautiful sight, walk to 

 the topmost house in Levuka early in the day. Behind you, and on 

 either hand are the toM'ering wooded hills, the deep chasms, the 

 noisy waterfalls. At your feet and away befoi-e you stretches the 

 calm, blue sea. One mile from the shore the white breakers mark 

 the outline of the coral reef. The whole reflects a beautiful rainbow. 

 A little schooner or a native canoe lazily waits for the wind. 

 Around in the distance are other islands of the Fijis, pretty and 

 varied in outline. The sun is shining pleasantly. The heat is not 

 overbearing. You recline on the grass, and watch the white seagulls 



