28 A MISSION TO VITI. 
classic story, but never seems to meet with nowadays. 
As we were taking our luncheon, the Queen asked nu- 
merous questions about our system of monogamy. For 
her part, she could never bring herself really to esteem 
a man contented with one wife, and she was glad her 
husband was a polygamist. Of course we tried to con- 
vince her of our way of looking upon the subject, but, 
having fairly refuted our assumption that women do not 
like to see their husband's affection distributed over a 
whole harem, she almost got the best of the argument. 
After another hour's scramble we reached the summit, 
and found it to all appearance a large extinct crater 
filled with water, and on the north-eastern part covered 
with a vegetable mass, so much resembling in colour 
and appearance the green fat of the turtle, as to have 
given rise to the popular belief that the fat of all the 
turtles eaten in Fiji is transported hither by superna- 
tural agency, which is the reason why on the morning 
after a turtle-feast the natives always feel very hungry. 
This jelly-like mass is several feet thick, and entirely 
composed of some microscopic cryptogams, which, from 
specimens I submitted to the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, 
a weighty authority in these matters, proved to be 
Hoomospora transversalis of Brebisson, and the repre- 
sentative of quite a new genus, named Hoomonema 
Jluitans, Berkl. A tall species of sedge was growing 
among them, and gave some degree of consistency to 
the singular body. We were not aware until it was too 
late that these strange productions were only floating 
on the top of the lake and forming a kind of crust, or 
else we should not have ventured upon it. On the con- 
