44 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



coralliferous limestones, rising on ^ge\e Levu to about sixty feet, on Tai 

 ni ]\Ibeka to forty feet, and on Taulalia to thirty feet. The process of 

 disintegration which has taken place can still be seen going on at the 

 extremities of the island of Xgele Levu. On the reef flat near it, as 

 well as along the inner beach, crop out many negro-heads of elevated 

 limestone rock, and between the smaller islands, which are now only 

 connected by a reef flat, the islands themselves being undercut and their 



urn 



TAULALIA, NGELE LEVU LAGOON". 



surface deeply pitted and honeycombed (Plates 95, 96). On Taulalia 

 many large domes of harder material, somewhat conical, still exist, 

 which have not been rounded off to the general level of the island. 



We walked a good part of the length of the island of Xgele Levu, 

 and crossed it at rioht angles. The elevated tertiarv limestome rock 

 was found cropping out at all points (Plate 97), and towards the north- 

 eastern shore we came upon a belt of limestone nearly devoid of vege- 

 tation, which must have risen at points to fully sixty feet above the 

 shore line. The surface of that part of the island was full of deep 

 potholes and crevasses of all sizes and shapes, separated by ridges and 

 columnar or conical masses, some of them fully fifteen feet alove the 

 general level of the surrounding area (Plate 98). The rock surface in 

 all directions was pitted and honeycombed, and eroded into thousands 

 of sharp points and needles, the aspect of this island recalling a similar 

 structure so common among the Bahamas. At Observatorv Point, the 

 southern extremity of the island, this very characteristic structure is 

 quite well marked, and shows admirably the gradual passage of an island 

 composed of elevated limestone rock into a reef flat identical in all 

 respects with the reef flats surrounding the lagoon. Plate 99 shows the 



