CHAPTER XI 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL AND GENERAL PHYSICAL 

 FEATURES (continued) 



THE KORO-TINI RANGE OR TABLE-LAND 



THE level-topped range that forms the mountainous backbone 

 of the island for a distance of nearly 10 miles is one of the 

 remarkable features of Vanua Levu. 1 In the general profile of the 

 island it is named the Koro-tini Table-land on account of the level 

 profile which it presents whether viewed from the north or from 

 the south. But this is merely its appearance en masse. When it 

 is examined in detail it is found that although much of the range 

 has an elevation between 2,000 and 2,400 feet above the sea, it 

 attains an elevation of about 3,000 feet in the case of two gently 

 sloping peaks. With regard also to its table-top, it is necessary to 

 remark that whilst in some portions of the range the summit is 

 broad and level, in others it is much cut up into ridges, and in 

 others again it presents a single narrow crest. Nor can we realise 

 on looking at the profile the extent to which its slopes have been 

 carved out by river-erosion, and we get no indication of the several 

 lofty spurs that descend north and south far into the plains, as in 

 the case of the spur west of Sueni and in that terminating in the 

 Koro-tini Bluff. In the profile the eye ignores the details with 

 which the investigator during many toilsome ascents has filled the 

 pages of his note-books. To this extent it is useful in that it 

 enables him to rise a little above the level of his facts, and permits 

 him (to employ a figure-of-speech) to regard the style and general 

 character of the edifice without being exclusively absorbed in the 

 study of the bricks. 



This range, which extends from a mile or two west of Sealevu 

 to a couple of miles east of Sueni, is connected on the west with 

 the Va-lili Range by the Waisali Saddle before described, and on 

 1 It rises in the background of the view. 



