A FLOATING ISLAND.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1234, 16 February 1878, Page 3

A FLOATING ISLAND.

A correspondent of the “Fiji Argus” gives the following description of a floating island in Yanua Levu, called Waqaqele:—“ It is fifty paces in length and about twenty in breadth, and is composed entirely of linn turf, in some places quite dry, being thickly covered with tall rushes (kuta), besides several Nalata bushes, 15ft. to 20ft. high. There are four islands in all. Three are of the size and appearance of that on which we stood. One has three Balawa trees on it, and appears to have been more recently detached from the moor. The fourth island is smaller, being only about Isft. in length, and on it was the eeene of most uproarious mirth. At one time we counted ten men it, one of whom was a very reverend Yakavuvuli J3uli of our party, who, being now convinced that there was nothing in the “kaci kaci,” was giving his mind entirely to the scientific side of the question. The aggregate weight of the ten people must have been about fifteen hundred pounds, and the island sank several inches, and canted ominously until relieved of part of its burthen. The men, one by one, teacher and all, plunged into the water, and swam about, regardless of the grim warning of the old man up the tree, that they would be seized by unseen hands below. We were not slow to follow the example of the natives and jumped in also. The banks are covered with rushes, and are level with the water. They do not shelve at all, but go down sheer. Where we bathed there was no bottom for at least two or three tfathoms, at the very margin of the moss. In many places the water had sapped the loose aoil under the turf to a considerable distance. At the time of our visit the size of the mere was about 250 yards by 150; but, probably, after much rain it is three times that size. We had no means of judging the depth other than by swimming, and we can only say that we found it to be more than two fathoms in the middle, but how much more we cannot say, and where the island had drifted it was two fathoms. The water is stagnant but not impure ; it is not pleasant to the taste, but there is hardly a suspicion of boggy flavor.”