94 NOTES ON THE CAVES OF FIJI, 



The cavern maintains a fairly even dip of some 20°, crossing 

 the bedding of the limestones at a very acute angle, so as to 

 appear to follow their dip. 



Some of the chambers were as much as 60 ft. in length, 30 ft. 

 in width, and 50 ft. in height. 



The section yielded by the cave is explained in the diagram 



(%• !)• 



The mouth of the cave is in a dense red limestone. Below this 

 belts of fine calcareous mud are traversed, and beneath these a 

 coral reef occurs, the contained corals belonging to varieties of 

 Porites. Beneath these again mud and granular limestone occur. 



This cave possesses stalactitic growths, though not in the 

 marked degree in which they occur in other caves of the group. 

 Thick mud deposits exist on the floor. 



An interesting feature of this cave is the occurrence in thou- 

 sands of the small Fiji bat, called by the natives beke beke. 

 These could be seen covering the roof of the larger chambers, and 

 progress through the narrow tunnels was much hindered by their 

 attempts to pass us. White and apparently blind spiders are of 

 frequent occurrence. 



2. — The Caves of Mata-ni-Vatu. — Twenty-five miles from the 

 mouth of the Singatoke two enormous clifi's of dolomite occur 

 on the eastern bank of the stream. Their appearance is most 

 imposing. The smaller one shows perpendicular walls to the 

 river 400 to 600 ft. in height. Other parts of the clifi's are not 

 quite so steep, but higher, rising 850 ft. out of the river. The 

 larger cliff" is very broken, and is over 1,200 ft. in height. 



Caverns open out on these immense cliff" faces. Our stay was 

 too limited to admit of any attempt in the way of exploring these 

 dangerous caves, since in certain cases long ropes are necessary 

 to lower the climber from the crags above to the cavern entrances. 



Natives who have seen some of the more easily approachable 

 occurrences assert that they partake much of the nature of the 

 Singatoke cave, but are larger, and the underground waters are 

 inhabited by blind fish. 



