ANDREWS: LIMESTONES OF THE FIJI ISLANDS. 



PREFACE. 



Letter from Professor T. W. Edgeworth David of the Univer- 

 sity of Sydney, New South Wales, dated March 15, 1899. 



Mr. E. C. Andrews, B. A., is forwarding to you by this mail for your 

 information his notes, maps, sections, and photographs relating to the 

 geology of the raised reefs of Fiji, with some additional notes on Tonga. 



This information he gained by personal examination of all the islands 

 referred to in his report, and he and Mr. B. Sawyer, B. E. (also of Sydney 

 University), who accompanied him, spared no pains in attempting to 

 carry out your instructions as fully as possible. 



With the funds placed by you at his disposal, Mr. Andrews was en- 

 abled to hire a cutter and a Fiji crew, and by this means he managed to 

 visit most of the islands of the Lau Group and also explored Vatu Leile, 

 part of Viti Levu, Taviuni, Totoya, etc. 



His method of work after landing on an island was to explore the cliff 

 faces and inland terraces, measuring altitudes and distances with an 

 aneroid and Abney's level, by pacing and taking angles with a prismatic 

 compass, and systematically collecting specimens by blasting and 

 quarrying. 



This cliff exploration was done at first by means of a strong wooden 

 box lowered over the cliffs by a rope. This method was discarded for 

 the simpler one of scaling the cliffs, after the manner of the Fiji natives, 

 by means of the long rope-like roots of the banyan-tree, which depended 

 in some cases for over one hundred feet in length over the cliffs. 



After the sections of the cliffs had been obtained and systematic col- 

 lections of specimens made, the higher slopes and inland terraces of the 

 islands were explored, it frequently being necessary to cut tracks through 

 the dense undergrowth for a considerable distance, in order to admit of 

 the ground being traversed. 



Mr. Andrews' short report and notes and sections speak for them- 

 selves, but at the same time I should like to say a few words about 

 his general conclusions. 



He finds the following formations represented in Fiji, the older being 

 mentioned first : — 



