CLIMATE OF THE FIJI ISLANDS.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 283, 6 July 1860, Page 4

CLIMATE OF THE FIJI ISLANDS.

Considering the nearness of these islands to the equator, their climate is neither so hot nor so sickly as might be expected, the fierceness of the sun's heat being tempered by the cool breezes from" the/ wide ticeari around. The. swamps'are tod limited to produce miasma; and fever, in several forms,, is scarcely known. - Other diseases are not -so.numerous or malignant as in other climes, especially such as lie between the tropics.' •> - ■ : '■']■ ; ' -: 'The air is generally clear, and in the spring and autumn months the' climate is delightful' .In December; January, and February, the heat is oppressive;' the least exertion is followed by profuse perspiration, ' and no ordinary physical; energy can resist the enervating influence of the season, be- ' getting a fear lest HamletYwish should be realised, that—

■■i ; «• Solid flesh would meltThaw, and resolve itself into a dew."

The temperature is nearly uniform; the I greatest extremes of heat and cold being experienced inland. My meteorological journal kept at Lakemba in 1841, and ten years later at Vanua Levu, shows 62° as the lowest, and 120° as the highest temperature noted. The low temperature here recorded I ascribe, in part, to a river running \ close by my house. The mean temperature of the group throughout may be stated at SO °. Very hot days are . sometimes preceded by very cold night., No resident in Fiji having ever possessed j a rain gauge, it is impossible to speak with '■ accuracy about the quantity of water which falls. I find the following entry in my journal:—" 1850, Marchl4th. We have had forty-five days in succession rainy, more or less. These were preceed by four or. five dry days: before these again we had twenty-four rainy ones. T; On many of these days only a single shower fell, and that but slight; so that the real depth of rain might not be unusual." . Against the number of rainy days here given must be placed thq long duration of uninterrupted dry weather, often extending over two or three months. At times the burdened clouds discharge themselves in torrents. The approach of a heavy shower, while yet far away, is announced by its loud beating on the broad-leaved vegetation ; and when arrived, it resembles the bursting of some atmospheric lake.— Fiji and the Fijians.