BY W. G. WOOLNOUGH. 465 



of lignitic material. This formation is apparently estuarine. 

 Passing up the river, the soapstone hills close in, and the alluvials 

 become less extensive. 



In the Waidina Valley nothing but soapstone is visible as far 

 as Nabukaluka. The river was flooded, so that ^■ery little of the 

 gravel was visible, and none at all for the latter part of the 

 distance. The pebbles consist mainly of granite and andesites. 

 The tufts throughout this district are almost level-bedded. They 

 are of the typical yellowish-grey colour of "soapstone"; in fact 

 the finer members are typical soapstones. Many of them are 

 rather coarser than typical soapstone, and contain small but 

 highly perfect augite crystals. All exhibit spheroidal weathering, 

 but it reaches its highest perfection in the fine varieties. The 

 creeks entering the river from the southwards contain no rocks 

 or pebbles other than tuft's, so that these must extend for a 

 considerable distance in that direction. 



Whilst flood-bound at Nabukaluka I made an excursion about 

 five miles up the Wainivalau. The first three miles crossed the 

 monotonous tuft" hills, and brought me to the foot of the pile of 

 mountains grouped about Buki Levu as the centre. The contrast 

 in outline and in vegetation between these hills and those com- 

 posed of soft tuff is ver}^ marked. The mountains form the south- 

 eastern termination of the high and excessively rugged mountainous 

 portion of the interior of the island. Their junction w^ith the 

 tuft' hills to the east can be traced by the contour of the country 

 for at least ten miles in a north-south direction. They are built 

 up of enormously massive beds of agglomerate, which are certainly 

 scores — probably hundreds — of feet thick. The boulders in them 

 are as much as six feet in diameter, and are subangular to 

 rounded in shape. No sign of dip could be observed. Associated 

 with these agglomerates are beds of tuff and solid sheets of 

 andesite lava. I found no boulders of granite, quartzite or other 

 continental rocks, either here or in any of the other agglomerates 

 which were examined in \arious parts of the island. At a point 

 about a mile below Nadakuni a large patch of gravel was exposed. 

 It contained pebbles of granite, andesite, olivine basalt, and hard, 



