EUA ISLAND. 185 



go north, and near the outlet of the drainage valley of the island opposite 

 English Roads, sand beaches flank the west coast of the island (PI. Ill, 

 fig. 1). Immediately behind the beach, however, we generally find a small 

 ledge rising to a height of perhaps fifteen feet, the remnant of the lowest 

 terrace. This is usually eroded and honeycombed, and conceals the greater 

 part of the second terrace, which only reappears where the sand beach does 

 not exist. On the west side we can also trace, here and there, fragments 

 of cliffs cropping out at different heights, indicating the former existence of 

 various terraces (PI. Ill, fig. 1) to which they belonged. The western 

 slopes are thickly covered with vegetation, and seem, with the exception 

 of the outcrops just mentioned, to run unbroken from the beach or lowest 

 terrace up to the level of the fifth terrace, the terraces on the west side 

 having, as a rule, fallen in and crumbled so as to entirely change the 

 appearance of the topography. The succession of beaches and of patches 

 of the third and fourth terraces characterizes the topography of the west 

 coast of the island as compared to that of the ea^t. 



From our anchorage at English Roads, we could see the slopes of reddish 

 volcanic earth of the west face of the cliflCs formins? the terraces on the east 

 side of the island, passing down towards the central part of Eua, flanked 

 on the west by the line of hills of its western face. Back of the village of 

 Ohonua, the road rises quite rapidly to a height of about 150 feet, 

 which is probably, the level of the fourth terrace. From there, going south 

 on the ridge which forms the west face of the island, we rise gradually 

 to a height of 310 feet, then to a height of 370 feet, and drop again to 

 a height of about 350 feet, at a point opposite the highest pinnacle 

 of the ridge on the east side of the island (PI. 114). Striking out from 

 this point at right angles to the ridge, we go down into a sink, which is 

 mei'ely a sink of denudation, showing no trace of having once been a 

 lagoon or a part of a lagoon (PI. 114). The valley formed between the 

 hills of the eastern and western sides is probably 150 feet lower at this 

 point than the highest point of the western ridge. It then slopes 

 very gradually both north and south, after rising to the south to a low 

 ridge, which may have been 400 feet in height, and forms the deep 

 valley into which we looked when rounding the southern point. The 



