From the foregoing remarks it will be expected that some portion of this low-lying inland region will be occupied by swamps. This is in truth the case. About one and a half miles north-east from the village of Kalikoso is a small fresh-water lake, about 100 yards across, which lies in a slight depression in the plains and is surrounded by a wide margin of swampy ground, occupied by reeds and sedges, in which one sinks knee-deep when approaching the banks. The level of the surface of the lake is not over 25 feet above the sea, and only a foot or so below that of the plains around. Since the depth, as I ascertained it, is 15 to 18 feet, it follows that the bottom of the lake is only a few feet above the high-tide level. The mangroves extend to within a mile of its border; and it is possible that though lying about five miles inland, it may be indirectly affected by unusually high tides. It would be interesting to determine whether the water is ever brackish.
This small lake is, or was, regarded with superstitious awe by the natives on account of the floating islands that it contains. Different legends are connected with it, and the Fijians have given it the name of “Vaka-lalatha,” in allusion to the drifting of the islands from one side of the lake to the other, the small trees growing upon them acting “in the manner of sails.” Mr. Horne, who was in this locality in 1878, refers to the lake in his book, _A Year in Fiji_ (p. 24); but does not appear to have seen it. Mr. Thomson[102] visited it in 1880, and describes it as containing a single floating island, a quarter to a half an acre in extent. The island was in existence, the natives said, in the days of their great-grandfathers, a statement indicating that the people of the district had no reason to doubt its antiquity. A chief, who formed one of the party, dived under the island.
When I visited this lake in 1899 there were three floating islands, named by the natives “Wanga levu” and “Wanga lailai,” that is, “Large canoe” and “Small canoe.” The largest was 90 or 100 feet long, whilst the two smaller were about 50 feet long, the breadth being less than half the length. They are composed of a dense growth of reeds and sedges supporting small living trees 10 to 17 feet in height, swamp ferns, and other smaller vegetation, the whole forming fairly solid standing-ground, and doubtless possessing considerable thickness.