CHAPTER III 
LIFE ON MAKULUVA 
On Tuesday, June 6th, Mr. Pilling took us on a Government 
launch for reconnaissance of Makuluva and the neighboring reefs 
to judge its suitability as a base for our reef work. The island 
is nine or ten miles to the east of Suva on the south coast of 
Vitilevu and is reached by an inside passage between the main- 
land and the reefs that extend in broken series clear around to 
the north shore. It is sharply outlined by a long line of foaming 
breakers that pound incessantly over the seaward faces of the 
reefs and roar across their entire width at high tide. The land- 
ing is very bad as the bottom is strewn with coral rocks, and the 
swell is quite heavy most of the time. There is no safe anchorage 
and scores of anchors have been lost there by small sail-boats, 
launches and yachts. Very often the coral rocks are cemented 
so solidly to the bottom that they cannot be broken loose. The 
difficulty in landing is the greatest drawback to the island. 
A small rowboat from the launch set us ashore. We found the 
tide low, giving us a good opportunity to inspect the flats and 
reefs with which we were soon to become so familiar. We went 
out from the south end of the island wading through shallow 
water to the flats which extended half a mile or so to the outer 
edge of the reef and several miles in a general east and west 
direction. The landward side of the flats was not particularly 
attractive from the naturalist’s standpoint, although we saw many 
brilliantly blue starfish of large size and any number of serpent 
stars. The farther we went the better the prospect, however, and 
we were soon passing over acres of compound anemones, flabby 
aleyonarians and small patches of coral. Masses of worn coral 
rock, riddled by boring mollusks and sea-urchins, as well as by 
weathering, previded inviting retreats for mollusks and crusta- 
ceans; and, as ve later discovered, for brilliantly colored reef 
fishes which found refuge in the crannies at low tide. Nearcr the 
outer edge of the flats the fauna was more and more abundant 
and the tide pools became wonderful natural aquaria that could 
hardly be surpassed in beauty and wealth both of animal and 
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