CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE HARVARD MINERALOGICAL 



MUSEUM. 



VIII. — PETROGRAPHICAL NOTES ON SOME ROCKS 

 FROM THE FIJI ISLANDS. 



By Arthur S. Eakle. 



Presented by John E. WolEf, April 12, 1899. EeceiTed April 15, 1899. 



A COLLECTION, consisting of specimens of volcanic rocks from the 

 various islands of the Fiji group, collected by Mr. Alexander Agassiz 

 during the winter of 1897-98, was kindly placed in the hands of the 

 writer for a petrographical study. Each of the islands is, in general, 

 represented by specimens from one locality only, since the purpose was 

 to obtain simply an idea of the nature of the island rock, and not to 

 obtain a complete petrographical knowledge of the islands. In the case 

 of the very small islands, some of which are simply single exposed rocks, 

 the specimens collected can be considered as representative, but with the 

 majority of the islands structural and mineral differences may, and prob- 

 ably do, exist in the rocks iium different localities. The description, 

 therefore, of the specimen or specimens from each island, as given in this 

 paper, cannot be oflTered as the representative petrography of the island. 



The Fiji group comprises two large islands, Viti Levu or Great Fiji 

 and Vauua Levu, together with a multitude of much smaller ones lying 

 east, south, and west of Viti Levu. Many of these small islands were 

 visited by Mr. Agassiz, and sjiecimens from about twenty-five of them 

 were collected. 



In 1876 Th. Kleinschmidt visited some of these islands and collected 

 specimens of the rocks for the Museum GodefFroy in Hamburg.* These 

 specimens were later studied by Arthur Wichman,t and it is from his 

 published results that we have gained the most of our pi-esent knowledge 

 of the petrography of these islands. 



* Jnurn. Museum Godeffroy, 1870, XTV. 264. 

 t .Min. und petrog. Mitth , 1883, V. 1-CO. 



