204 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC CHAP. 



basaltic andesite having a specific gravity of 2*81 and referred to 

 genus 1 6 of the augite sub-class. It displays a characteristic 

 andesitic groundmass, showing crowded felspar-lathes in flow- 

 arrangement with average length of "17 mm., and containing 

 scarcely any residual glass. 



Proceeding along the coast east of Waikatakata, one enters 

 the region of altered pyroxene-andesites, for which Mount Free- 

 land, or the Ngala Range, is remarkable. There are first to be 

 observed on the shore blocks of a grey altered ophitic dolerite, 

 which belongs to the non-porphyritic division of genus 10 of the 

 augite-andesites and is described in detail on page 275. After- 

 wards the characteristic rocks of the district occur. The lofty 

 spurs of the Ngala Range here reach the shore ; and between 

 them lies the coast village of Ngara-vutu, from which the ascent 

 to the summit is best made. 



MOUNT FREELAND OR THE NGALA RANGE 



This high range forms a conspicuous object in the profile of 

 this part of the island. It derives its Fijian name from the old war- 

 town of Ngala that was situated at an elevation of 1,500 or 1,600 feet 

 overlooking Ngara-vutu on the west. The main mass of the range 

 takes a crescentic sweep, 3 or 4 miles in extent and facing Natewa 

 Bay. It incloses the coast district of Tunuloa. The steep 

 mountain-slopes here rise to 2,000 feet and over, the greatest 

 elevation being 2,740 feet. The densely wooded spurs of the range 

 occupy most of the area between the town of Natewa, Kumbulau 

 Point, and Mbutha Bay. 



The summit is a long narrow ridge covered with a dense 

 entangled mass of Freycinetia stems which render progress very 

 difficult The rocks exposed all the way up from the stream- 

 courses in the vicinity of Ngara-vutu to the top, are almost all of 

 the same type, namely altered augite-andesites. They are dark 

 grey in colour and effervesce slightly with an acid, whilst occasionally 

 they show a little pyrites. 1 Agglomerates were not observed and 

 tuffs only in one locality, 1,200 feet above the sea, where a highly 

 altered tuff composed of debris of the prevailing rocks was exposed. 

 At an elevation of 500 feet there occurred a grey doleritic porphy- 

 ritic rock, displaying large opaque crystals of plagioclase, and 

 looking like a porphyrite. It exhibits a semi-ophitic groundmass, 



1 They are described on p. 269 under the non-porphyritic sub-genus of genus 

 2 of the augite-andesites. 



