92 
FROM SYDNEY TO TORRES STRAIT 
gum-tree, the effect of its size is not spoiled by scanty foliage, for it is surmounted by a 
magnificent dome of green leaves. 
On the first day of our landing, an incident occurred which recalls tales of childhood, 
and the primitive manners of patriarchal 
times. As we gathered on the beach, waiting 
for the boat to bring us back to our floating 
home, the king’s grand-daughters came down 
to us bearing trays laden with choice fruit. 
The princesses were dressed in green—the 
colour affected by Tongan royalty. A day 
or two after, as I sat sketching in front of 
one of the native huts at Nukualofa, a pair 
of young Tongans, named Josiah and 
Ileizane, insisted on being added to the 
picture. Ileizane picked up a bunch of leaves 
that lay at her feet, and the pair stood up 
hand in hand under the shade of a palm- 
tree, delighted with the idea of having their 
portraits taken. 
The “ Challenger’s ” short visit to 
Tongatabu terminated on the 22nd. This was 
one of the pleasantest episodes of our cruise 
round the world, and we were loath to part 
from an island which seemed to realise the 
dream of the idyllic poet. The sun of a 
primitive civilisation is fast sinking below 
the western horizon of the Pacific. We were fortunate enough to gather some of its last rays. 
About noon on the 23rd we were close to the reefs of Turtle Island, and on the 24th 
we stopped off Matuku Island, belonging, like the former, to the Fijian Archipelago. 
ILEIZANE AND JOSIAH. 
FIJI ISLANDS. 
Matuku, with its picturesque variety of hill and dale, its mountain-cones and fantastically- 
shaped rocks densely covered with a rich carpet of vegetation, and its girdle of coral reef, 
gives a fair idea of the general aspect of the Fijian Islands, apparently all of volcanic origin. 
It is well known that the reef-building coral cannot live in fresh water. Flence we always 
find an opening in the reef at the point where the drainage of a valley flows into the sea, 
as shown in the sketch, and vessels of the largest size are thus able to enter and take 
shelter behind the natural breakwater or harbour formed by the coral reef. The deep blue 
water of the ocean outside, the snow-white foam of the waves as they dash against the reef,, 
the placid emerald sea inside, where 
