After a short stay in his house, and refreshed by a drink of delicious milk, we continued our walk down this valley, following the course of the river, which, as we advanced, rapidly increased in size, and pursued so sinuous a course that we were obliged to cross and recross it five or six times before we arrived at Buréta—a native village on the west side of Ovalau—which we gained just before nightfall. A further walk of about a mile brought us to the residence of a friend of Mr. Parr's (Captain Morne), a retired merchant captain, and now the owner of a large estate, by whom we were most hospitably entertained and lodged for the night.
This gentleman was doing a large trade in pine-apples, of which he has about twenty acres under cultivation. He sends the produce periodically to Sydney by steamer, packed in wooden boxes, where they fetch about 20s. per dozen. On the following morning we spent some hours in strolling about the estate, and in a creek near the outlet of the Livoni River we saw the curious mud-fish Periophthalmus jumping about on the moist beach in the ludicrous manner which has been so well described by Mr. Moseley in his "Notes of a Naturalist," its pectoral fins being used for terrestrial progression.
We made the return journey by the south side of the island, Captain Morne very considerately sending us on in one of his boats as far as the south-west extreme of Ovalau, from whence a three hours' walk along the seashore brought us back to Levuka.
TOTOONGA VALLEY, OVALAU, FIJI.
On the morning of the 11th of October we got under way from Levuka, and spent the day in steaming over to Suva, a commodious harbour, situated on the south-east side of Viti Levu, where it was our intention to coal ship from a stationary hulk which supplies the steamers plying between Sydney and the Fijian ports. It is said that Suva, from the accommodation which its harbour affords, and from its position on an easily accessible part of the largest island of the group, is destined to become the seat of government and the future capital of Fiji; but at the time of our visit the settlement was very insignificant, and looked a mere speck in the great extent of wooded land which seemed from our anchorage to spread before us in a vast semicircle.
Leaving the ship on the morning of the following day, I started for a walk on shore, taking my gun, insect bottle, and collecting boxes. I at first directed my steps inland along the main road, and for about three miles proceeded over an upland plain of undulating land, thickly covered with tall reeds, and showing here and there patches of brush in the wet hollows. In the last-mentioned localities a good many birds, chiefly parrots, were to be heard screaming shrilly, but owing to the denseness of the foliage, few were visible.
In the afternoon I returned to the settlement, and from thence proceeded along the beach towards the low point which shelters the harbour from the north-east winds. Here, as the tide fell and laid bare broad flats of mud and coral, several flocks of sandpipers, whose general plumage resembled that of the snipe, came in from seaward, settled, and commenced to feed. A brace of duck and a large grey tern were the only other birds seen.
We learned that the country in the immediate vicinity of Suva was exceedingly unproductive. The soil was very thin, and the sub-soil was a stiff pasty clay of a grey colour—in places resembling soapstone—and so impervious to drainage as to render all attempts at agriculture hitherto abortive.