14 BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPAKATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



shallow to allow our vessel to enter, but near enough to get an excellent 

 idea of its characteristic structure. We next touched at Kambara, an- 

 chored in the crater of Totoya, made for Moala, and thence for Solo 

 Lighthouse, examined the North Astrolabe Eeef, steamed through the 

 Great Astrolabe Reef, coming out west of Ouo, examined a part of the 

 northern shore of Kandavu, and then made for Vatu Leile, retumiug to 

 Suva. On our second trip we visited Xgau, Xairai, the Horseshoe lieef, 

 Mbatiki, and, entering the Moturiki Channel south of Ovalau, examined 

 the inner side of the barrier reef as far as Mbau, and explored the bar- 

 rier reef from Moturiki to Suva.. During our third trip we steamed 

 along the southei'n coast of Viti Levu, going as far west as Nandronga. 

 Skirting the reef as closely as was prudent, we were able to follow the 

 changes of the great barrier reef of Viti Levu west of Suva as it grad- 

 ually passes into a fringing reef and disappears off the Siugatoka River, 

 to reappear again, first as a fringing reef, next as a ban-ier reef extending 

 beyond the Nandi waters to the west of Xaudronga. We then paid 

 a second visit to Vatu Leile, which we had not been able to examine 

 properly owing to bad weather, and returned to Suva, having steamed 

 a little over thirteen hundred miles.^ 



AVhile we wei'e exploring the reefs in the vicinity of Suva, the 

 " Yaralla " made tw^o trips in charge of Captain Thomson, one to the 

 Nandi waters entering through the Xavula Passage, extending as far 

 north as the Waia Islands to the south of the Yasawa group ; the other 

 passing close to Vatu Vara, Yathata, and Xaitamba, on the way to Wai- 

 Sangilala in order to bring back the crew left there to caiTy on the boring. 



THE PELAGIC FAUNA OF FIJI. 



I brought with me deep-sea tow-nets of the various patterns used by 

 the Prince of ]\Ionaco, by Dr. Giesbrecht of the Xaples Zoological 

 Station, and by Hensen on the " National " Expedition, in order to com- 

 pare their efficiency with the Tanner deep-sea self-closing net in use on 

 the "Albatross," and which I have adopted on my various expeditions. 

 Unfortunately, our time in Fiji was so limited and the conditions for 

 towing at great depths are such, among so many intercepting islands, 

 that the results likely to be obtained seemed to make it unadvisable to 



^ The Islands and Coral Reefs of the Fiji Group, by Alexander Agassiz, Am. 

 Journ. Sci., Vol. V., February, 1898. 



