Note 28 — XVIII. (continued 2)

This Archipelago, remarkable by the size and loftiness of its islands, extends from Batoa or South Island in the S.E. (19° 47′ S. by 179° 52′ E.), to Thicombea to the N. (15° 47′ S.), and Biva to the W. (176° 50′ E.), and contains 225 islands and islets, of which about 80 are inhabited. The entire superficial area is about 5700 square miles, and upon a superficial estimate it contains 150,000 souls. The climate seems to be eminently suitable for cotton culture, besides which sugar-cane, coffee, tobacco, arrow-root, and most probably rice and indigo, may be advantageously cultivated. Berchthold Seemann, the well-known botanist, who made a scientific exploration of some of the Feejee Islands at the expense of the English Government in the Autumn of 1860, discovered in the valleys of Naona forests of the sago palm, whose nutritious flour might become an important article of export. Dr. Petermann published in the latter half of 1861, at page 67 of his valuable "particulars of certain important recent discoveries in geography," an interesting synopsis of all the latest scientific information respecting the Feejee Archipelago.