BY W. G. WOOLNOUGII. 469 



soapsfcone. Elsewhere, as at Suva and at Tawaleka, we have 

 interbedded fossiliferous limestones, certainly of Tertiary age. 

 These rocks form what I have somewhat loosely termed the 

 " Newer Series." They lie unconformably upon a much older series 

 -of rocks, amongst which granitoid rocks predominate. With these 

 are associated extensive areas of rocks with highly perfect and 

 very complex slaty cleavage developed in them. These were 

 formerly believed to be altered sediments, but later investiga- 

 tions have proved that in many, if not most, cases they are highly 

 metamorphosed volcanic materials, in part trachytic. That they 

 are much older than the newer series is proved by the \er3'' 

 marked lithological differences, by their universally inferior 

 position, and by the occurrence of pebbles of granite and other 

 -rocks in massive beds of conglomerate at Nasoqo on the Wailoa, 

 Rewasau on the Wailoa, and Nukuilau on the Sigatoka. All 

 these places are at, or very near, the junction of the " Newer 

 Series" with the older series. At Bualevu on the Upper 

 Sigatoka there is another conglomerate on probably the same 

 geological horizon, but no granites have been found in it. At 

 Nosoqo, and at Nadrau (near Bualevu) fossils have been found 

 which show that the beds in question belong to some part of the 

 Tertiary era, though their preservation is not good enough for 

 specific determination. We have, nevertheless, the ver}' important 

 conclusion that basal conglomerates of a great Tertiary series 

 rest unconformably upon, and contain pebbles of, an enormousl}^ 

 older series made up of granitoid and slaty rocks. 



So widespread is the newer series that it is onl}' where 

 extensive denudation has removed it locally, that the older series 

 is exposed to view. We therefore meet with the older rocks 

 chiefly in the bottoms of the narrow, young river-vallej^s. In 

 such positions they have been met with in situ in the Wainivalau, 

 Wainimala, Wailoa, Sigatoka, Wailato (and neighbouring streams) 

 and Wainikoroiluva Rivers. Their presence is inferred from 

 river-gravels in the Waimanu, close to the Waidina, and in some 

 of the north-west branches of the Navua Rivers. In one place 

 only, so far as I know, do they occur extensively forming the 



