Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/166

 156 FIJI ISLANDS with a beautiful and luxuriant vegetation. The large inlands have a considerable extent of undulating country, dry and open on their lee sides ; the peaks rise from 4000 to 5000 feet. Climate and Diseases. The cliujate, especially from November to April, is somewhat enervating to the Eng lishman, but nut unhealthy. Fevers are hardly known. Dysentery, which is very common, and the most serious disease in the islands, is said to have been unknown before the advent of Europeans. Elephantiasis is common, but is curable by removal into higher and better air. It is some times produced by immoderate use of kava. Influenza is at timea prevalent and very fatal. Rheumatism is common. The natives hive a bad skin disease, thoko, affecting also the bones, from which few escape ; but it is said to be avoidable by a sounder hygiene. Rivers. Streams and rivers ar3 abundant, the tatter very large in proportion to the size of the islands, affording a water-way to the rich districts along their banks. These and the extensive mud flats and deltas at their mouths ate often flooded, by which their fertility is increased, though at a heavy cost to the cultivator. Geological Formation. The geological features of the group point to repeated volcanic action at considerable intervals. The tops of many of the mountains, from Kandavu in the S.W., through Nairai and Koro, to the Itinggold group in the N.E, have distinct craters, but their activity lias long ceased. The various decomposing volcanic rock 5 tufas, conglomerates, and basalts mingled with decayed vegetable matter, and abundantly watered, form a very fertile soil. Most of the high peaks on the larger islands are basaltic, and the rocks generally are igneous, with occasional upheaved coral found sometimes over 1000 feet above the sea; but certaiu sedimentary rocks observed on Viti Levu seem to imply a nucleus of laud of considerable age. Hot springs occur on Yiti Levu, on Ngau, at Wainunu and Savu-Savu on VanuaLevu; the last have a temperature of 200-210 F., and cover an area of half a square mile. Earthquakes are occasionally felt. Volcanic activity in the neighbourhood is further shown by the quantities of pumice-stone drifted on to the south coasts of Kandavu and Viti Levu ; malachite, antimony, and graphite, gold in sin ill quantities, and specular iron-sand occur. Islands. The islands number about 250, of which perhaps 80 are inhabited. Viti Levu, about 80 by 55 miles, is the largest and most important from its fertility and variety of surface, number of large rivers, and population, which is about one-third of that of the whole group. VanuaLevu, somewhat smaller, about 100 by 25 miles, and less fertile and populous, has good anchorages along its entire south coast. All the others are much smaller. Taviuui, 25 by 5 miles, with a central ridge 2100 feet high and a lake at the top, is fertile, but exceptionally devoid of harbours. Kandavu, 25 miles long and very narrow, well-timbered, with a good harbour, contains a Wesleyan training institution and model village. Fulanga and Kambara are well-timbered and frequented by canoe- builders. Totoya, Moala, Ngau, Mbengga, Nairai, Koro, are all valuable islands (the last especially fertile), 15 to 30 miles in circumference. The Wilson or Exploring group consists of seven islands of considerable size, well situated for the resort of vessels, with anchorages safe and easily reached, and supplies abundant. The navigation between the islands is in many places intricate, but the dangers can be much lessened by good surveys, careful pilotage, and increased use of steam. There are good anchor ages inside the barrier reefs ; the best harbours are those of Suva in Viti Levu, Savu-Savu and Mbua or Sandahvood Bays in Vanua Levu, Galoa Bay in Kandavu, and Levuka. Vegetation. The vegetation is mostly of a tropical ludo- Malayan character, thick jungle with great trees covered with creepers and epiphytes. The lee sides of the larger islands, however, have grassy plains suitable for grazing, with scattered trees, chiefly Pandanus, and ferns. The flora has also some Australian and New Zealand affinities (resembling in this respect the New Caledonia and new Hebrides groups), shown especially in these western districts by the Pandanus, by certain acacias, epacrids, Casuarince, and Dammara, and by the peculiar habit of other species. At about 2000 feet the vegetation assumes a more mountain type. Among the many valuable timber trees are the vesi (Afzelia bijiiga); the dilo (Calophyllum Inophyllum), the oil from its seeds being much used in the islands, as in India, in the treatment of rheumatism ; the dakua (Dammara Vitiensis) allied to the New Zealand kauri ; the vaivai (Serianthes Vitiensis}, the Casuarina, and others, chiefly conifers, Guttiferje, Myrtacero, and Lcguminos-e. Most of the fruit trees are also valuable as timber. The native cloth (masi) is beaten out from the bark of the paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), cultivated for the purpose. Several useful fibres are supplied by plants of the Musacca?, Bromelideas, Thymeleas, and other orders. Of the palms the cocoa-nut is by far the most important. l)r Seemann discovered a sago-palm known to the natives by the name of sogu, though they were then ignorant of its use. The yasi or sandalwood is now rarely found, and only in a small district at the western extremity of Vanua Levu. There are various useful drugs, spices, and per fumes ; and many plants are cultivated for their beauty, to which the natives are keenly alive. Among the plants used as p^t-herbs are several ferns, and two or three Solanums, one of which, /&. anthropophagorum, allied to our S. nigriim, was one of certain plants always cooked with human flesh, which is said to be otherwise difficult of digestion. The use of the kava root, here called yanggona (Macrojnper methysticum), from which the well-known national bever age is made, was introduced, it is said, from Tonga. Of fruit-trees, besides the cocoa-nut, we can only mention the many varieties of the bread-fruit, of bananas and plantains, of sugar-cane and of Citrus; the wi (Sjiondias dulcis], the kavika (Eugenia malaccensis), the ivi or Tahitian chestnut (Inocarpus ednlis), the pine-apple, and others recently introduced. Edible roots are especially abundant. The chief staple of life is the yam, the names of several months in the calendar having reference to its cultivation and ripening, The Dioscorea alata is the variety chiefly planted ; its roots are sometimes 8 feet long and 100 It) in weight. The kawai (D. aculeata) is also a very fine esculent, and there are several wild species. The yaka, which also grows wild, is a papilionaceous creeper (PachyrJdzus angulatus), with roots G to 8 feet long and as thick as a man s thigh ; it is also much valued for its fibre. The taro or dalo (Colocasia escidenta) is grown in ditches, by streams, or on irrigated ground ; and there are other aroideous plants growing wild, with huge edible conns. The natives use no grain or pulse, but make a kind of bread (mandrai) from the above roots, as well as from the banana (which is the best), the bread-fruit, the ivi, the kavika, the arrow-root ( Tacca pinnatifida and T. sativa), and in times of scarcity the mangrove. This bread is made by burying the materials for months, till the mass is thoroughly fermented and homogeneous, when it is dug up and cooked by baking or steaming. This simple process, applicable to such a variety of substances, is a valuable security against famine. The islands are well suited to sugar, maize, coffee, cotton (which here becomes a perennial several feet high), tobacco, man ill a, india-rubber, &c.