Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/27

 FIJI. 7 east to west, and fifty from north to south. A great variety of landscape is found in navigating the shores of Great Fiji. To the S. E. there is tolerably level ground for thirty-six miles inland, edged, in places, by cliffs of sandstone five hundred feet high. The luxuriant and cheerful beauty of the lowland then gives place to the gloomy grandeur and un broken solitude of the mountains. To the S. W. are low shores with patches of brown, barren land ; then succeed narrow vales, beyond which rise hills, whose wooded tops are in fine contrast with the bold bare front at their base. Behind these are the highest mountains in the group, bleak and sterile, with an altitude of 4,000 or 5,000 feet. West- ward and to the east, high land is close to the shore, with only narrow strips of level ground separating it from the sea. Proceeding north- ward, some of the finest scenery in Fiji is opened out. The lower level, skirted by a velvety border of mangrove bushes, and enriched with tropical shrubs, is backed, to the depth of four or five m.iles, by hilly ground, gradually reaching an elevation of from 400 to 700 feet, with the lofty blue mountains seen, through deep ravines, in the distance. Great Fiji has a continuous land or shore-reef, with a broken sea-reef extending from the west to the north. The Great Land also has in most parts a shore-reef, with a barrier-reef stretching from its N. E. point the whole length of the island, and beyond it in a westerly direction. Great Fiji is supposed to contain at least 50,000 inhabitants. Scanty and imperfect as is this notice of some of its chief islands, enough has been said to show the superiority of Fiji over most other groups in the Pacific, both in extent of surface, and amount of population. This superiority will be made clearer by the following statement of their relative importance : — The islands composing Viti-i-loma (Middle Fiji) are equal to the fine and populous island of Tongatabu together with the Hervey Islands. The Yasawas are equal to Vavau. Tlie eastern group is equal to the Hapai Islands. The Somosomo group equals the Dangerous Archipelago and the Austral Islands. The Great Land is equal to the Marquesas, Tahiti, and Society Islands. Great Fiji alone surpasses the Samoan group ; while there still re- mains over, the Kandavu group, with a population of about 12,000. Without pretending to write the natural geography of Fiji, occasional notices of its geology, botany, and zoology will be introduced where such notices are likely to prove peculiarly interesting or instructive. The volcanic formation of these islands has already been intimated,