Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/26

 6 FIJI AXD THE FIJIA^^S. all sizes, aud tall temples with projecting ridgepoles, interspersed with unsightly canoe-sheds. Here is concentrated the chief political powei of Fiji. Its inhabitants comprise natives of Mbau and the Lasakau and Soso tribes. Taviuxi — commonly called Somosomo, from its town of that name being the residence of the ruling chiefs — is too fine an island to be over- looked. It is about twenty-five miles long, with a coast of sixty miles, and consists of one vast mountain, gradually rising to a central ridge of 2.100 feet elevation. Fleecy clouds generally hide its summit, where stretches a considerable lake, pouring through an outlet to the west a stream which, after tumbling and dashing along its narrow bed, glides quietly through the chief town, furnishing it with a good supply of fresh water. A smaller outlet to the east discharges enough water to form a small but beautiful cascade. This lake is supposed to have as its bed the crater of an extinct volcano, an idea supported by the quantity of volcanic matter found on the island. However wild and terrible the appearance of the island once, it is now covered with luxuriance and beauty beyond the conception of the most glowing imagination. Per- haps every characteristic of Fijian scenery is found on Somosomo, while all the tropical vegetables are produced here in perfection. It has only a land-reef, which is often very narrow, and in many places entirely wanting, breaking, towards Tasman's Straits, into detached patches. Kaxdavu is another large and mountainous island, twenty-five miles long, by sLx or eight wide. It has a very irregular shore, abounds in valuable timber, and has a population of from 10,000 to 13,000. A good idea of the general appearance of these islands is obtained by regarding them as the elevated portions of subnirerged continents. The interior is, in many instances, a single hill or mountain, and, in many others, a range, the slopes of which, with the plains mostly fomid at their feet, constitute the island. There yet remain to be noticed the two large islands, which, when compared with those stretching away to the east, assume the importance of continents. Vaxua Levu (Great Land) is more than one hundred miles long, having an average breadth of twenty-five miles. Its western extremity is notable as being the only part of Fiji m which sandal-wood can be produced. The opposite point of the island is deeply indented by the Natawa Bay, which is forty miles long, and named by the natives, " the Dead Sea." Tlie population of Vanua Le^-u is estimated at 31,000 Its scenery much resembles that of Na Viti Levu (the Great Fiji) which measures ninety miles from