CH. XVI THE KALIKOSO PLAINS 225 



behind the coast-ranges into the plains ; whilst the dense man- 

 groves, which line their lower courses amongst the hills, extend be- 

 yond into the low-lying level districts farther inland. Boats can 

 follow up the winding course of the Wainikoro River until they 

 reach the village of that name, which lies about five and a half miles 

 in a direct line from the coast and nearly in the centre of this part 

 of the island. The mangroves extend up to the village. The 

 Langa-langa River, which is of much smaller size, is similarly 

 navigable for three or four miles. The mangroves that line its 

 banks spread out in broad tracts when in ascending the river we 

 emerge from the hills into the plains. Above the influence of the 

 tide it dwindles into a stream ridiculously small. The same 

 remarks apply to the river two miles to the eastward. The Vui- 

 na-savu River near the eastern margin of this low-lying region can 

 be ascended by boats into the heart of the island. 



From the foregoing remarks it will be expected that some por- 

 tion of this low-lying inland region will be occupied by swamps. 

 This is in truth the case. About one and a half miles north-east 

 from the village of Kalikoso is a small fresh-water lake, about 100 

 yards across, which lies in a slight depression in the plains and is 

 surrounded by a wide margin of swampy ground, occupied by reeds 

 and sedges, in which one sinks knee-deep when approaching the 

 banks. The level of the surface of the lake is not over 25 feet 

 above the sea, and only a foot or so below that of the plains around. 

 Since the depth, as I ascertained it, is 1 5 to 18 feet, it follows that the 

 bottom of the lake is only a few feet above the high-tide level. 

 The mangroves extend to within a mile of its border ; and it is 

 possible that though lying about five miles inland, it may be 

 indirectly affected by unusually high tides. It would be interesting 

 to determine whether the water is ever brackish. 



This small lake is, or was, regarded with superstitious awe by 

 the natives on account of the floating islands that it contains. 

 Different legends are connected with it, and the Fijians have 

 given it the name of " Vaka-lalatha," in allusion to the drifting of 

 the islands from one side of the lake to the other, the small trees 

 growing upon them acting " in the manner of sails." Mr. Home, 

 who was in this locality in 1878, refers to the lake in his book, A 

 Year in Fiji (p. 24) ; but does not appear to have seen it. Mr. 

 Thomson^ visited it in 1880, and describes it as containing a single 

 floating island, a quarter to a half an acre in extent. The 



^ See paper quoted on p. 31. It is noteworthy that Mr. Home refers only 

 to a single floating island. 



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