164 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
covered by impenetrable mangrove swamps. The Rewa has many 
mouths or distributaries and it is the custom of navigators of 
small craft to enter one of these and by zig-zagging back and forth 
save many miles beside avoiding the more open sea between 
Nukulau and Makuluva. Our route was through the Wainibokasa 
passage which turned so sharply at times that a Fijian boatman 
dove from the prow with a three-inch rope in his teeth and upon 
gaining the bank on the inside curve fastened the rope to a post 
set for the purpose, thus turning the boat in her own length. Any 
slight accident or grounding of the boat long enough for the tide 
to go out would have meant a long delay. <A night in that man- 
grove swamp with its millions of hungry mosquitoes would not 
have been a pleasant experience. 
Our first stop was at Levuka on the island of Ovalau. This we 
reached early in the afternoon and we were told that general 
business routine and tide conditions would keep us there until 
the next morning. Levuka is the old capital of the Fiji group 
and is beautifully situated along a shelving shore at the foot of 
high rugged hills. In spite of its lost prestige it is still a town 
of considerable commercial importance. We noted several large 
steamers at anchor loading copra and other produce. 
Ovalau is a mountainous island with peaks rising fully two 
thousand feet. Its deep, short and sheltered valleys are well 
adapted for coconut plantations and the island is comparatively 
free from the insects and blights which injure the trees on Viti- 
levu. The rock observed here is ia very coarse conglomerate 
which in places is rudely bedded and even ecross-bedded. A resi- 
dent told us that the stone is the same on the highest hills of the 
interior. 
The shore of this island for some distance to the north of 
Levuka shows unmistakable evidence of rather recent elevation. 
The shoreline previous to the uplift was a bold cliff into which 
the waves had cut a platform which is overhung at the promon- 
tories by hard, conglomerate cliffs. This platform is now five or 
six feet above high tide and is the site of a level, well-kept road. 
At low tide hundreds of dead coral masses are exposed near shore. 
These are much worn and partly dissolved, and when a mass be- 
comes free it is soon ground to pieces by the action of the waves. 
These coral evidently formed a part of the fringing reef before 
the uplift. The present barrier reef is miles out. At one point 
