BY W. G. WOOLNOUGH. 493 



Again, even taking into account tiie very rapid degradation 

 which must go on under the heavy rainfall of the tropics, it is 

 improbable that the Palaeozoic and Meso/oic strata would be so 

 completely removed as to leave no trace of their former existence. 

 We should expect, at least, to find traces of them as pebbles in 

 the co7u/'ornercites, but this is not the case, thouyli, as tve have seen, 

 fiebbles of the older rocks are met with. 



If the area had been a stable land surface for an enormous 

 period of time, as suggested by Wichmann, there should be a 

 continental shelf of vast size, but the contour of the ocean floor 

 does not appear to afford evidence of one at all comparable with 

 what we should expect. 



On the other hand, the subsidence theory accounts completely 

 for the entire absence of Mesozoic and Palseozoic formations, for 

 the very small size of the land area, and for the depth of the 

 ocean in its vicinity. If this theory be the correct one, we are 

 forced to the conclusion that the final separation of Fiji from the 

 Austral-Papuan Continent must have taken place at an extremely 

 remote date. 



It thus appears that the geological evidence is entirety in 

 accord with that derived from biological observations, of which 

 a brief summary has been given (p. 458). For a fuller resuine oi 

 the biological evidence, see the papers by Hedle}^ Ortmann, and 

 others. These will show that all the evidence so far collected 

 tends towards the same conclusion, but they also indicate what 

 a vast amount still remains to be done in the field of biological 

 as well as geological research in this most interesting and 

 important region. The work lies at our door, and it is for the 

 scientific workers of Australia to throw light on those points 

 which are still shrouded in darkness. 



viii. — Bibliography. 



1. — Agassiz, A. — "The Islands and Coral Eeefs of Fiji." Bull, Mus. 



Comp. Zool. Harvard Coll. Vol. xxxiii, (1899); also Am. Journ. 



Sci. (4), Vol. V. (Feb. 1898). 

 2. " The Tertiary Elevated Limestone Reefs of Fiji." Am. 



Journ. Sci. (4), Vol. vi. (1898). 



