118 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPAEATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



already stated, Viwa and Asawa i lau are said to consist of elevated 

 limestone. 



The Malolo Islands rise to more than 700 feet. Mana is 240 feet 



NORTHERN END OF 3IANA. 



high, Mondriki and Monu respectively 590 and 730 feet, and Waia more 

 than 1,800 feet. The extension northwai'd of the Yasawa group forms 

 a chain of sixteen high islands for a length of fifty miles, which ter- 

 minates in the reef of the Ivinsilk Islands on the south of Round 

 Island Passage, the principal entrance through the Great Sea Reef off 

 Vanua Levu. The Yasawa Islands, as well as the islands to the westward 

 of the Xandi Waters, are surrounded by fringing reefs. As will be seen 

 from the charts, the reefs are on the western face of the plateau (Plate 3) ; 

 so that the outer reef flats and the chain of inner islands intercept the 

 full access of the sea, and corals grow hut sparingly inside of that line. 



Suva Reef Flats. 



Plates 5, 24-30, 65, 76. 



Perhaps no reef flats illustrate better the grinding and wearing action 

 of the sea than those of the barrier reef, both to the east and west of the 

 entrance to Suva Harbor. All the inequalities of surface seem to have 

 been levelled off as with a plane, leaving only the shallow pools formed 

 by the interstices of the large masses of coral (Plates 28-30). The 

 fauna of the surface of these reef flats is comparatively poor in species, 

 but abundant in individuals. A large black Ophiothrix, with its disk 

 hidden in some crack or corner, trails its arms in all directions, and they 

 literally swarm in all parts of the reef. Towards the outer edge they 

 are replaced bv Echinometra lucunter, the holes and hollow ways of 

 which, often over two inches deep, honeycomb the surface, leaving nar- 



