376 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC CHAP. 



movement of emergence has affected both of the two larger islands. 

 Professor Martin of Leyden informed Dr. Wichmann that the 

 fossil shells found in the tuffs of Viti Levu, Ovalau, and other 

 islands were Tertiary but not older than the Miocene. 1 Dr. Dall, 

 after examining the fossil mollusks collected by Professor Agassiz 

 from the elevated limestones of Fiji, confirmed the impression 

 formed by the latter as to their late Tertiary age. None of the 

 genera were extinct, and the fossils were in his opinion younger 

 than Eocene and either Miocene or Pliocene. 2 The Rev. J. E. 

 Tenison- Woods described as extinct Tertiary fossils, some corals 

 and mollusks from the interior of Ovalau. 3 Mr. H. B. Brady, 

 basing his conclusions on the character of the foraminifera, assigned 

 a Post-Tertiary date to the Suva " soapstone " taken at elevations 

 up to 100 feet in that neighbourhood. 4 Professor David referring 

 to some fossil teeth of Carcharodon and to a fossil Tridacna found 

 at Walu Bay infers that the deposits are at least as old as Pliocene 

 but not as old as the earlier Tertiaries. 5 Since, as pointed out by 

 Professor David, the latest movements of emergence have taken 

 place in recent geological time, these various observations go to 

 show that whilst the latest exposure of deposits has occurred in 

 recent time the mass of the fossiliferous deposits date back to the 

 Pliocene and the Miocene periods. 



According to Wichmann these islands were in a continental 

 condition during the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic periods, and it was 

 only in the later Tertiary age that the movement of subsidence 

 began that prepared the way for the formation of the more recent 

 deposits. The submergence during the Tertiary period and the 

 subsequent emergence are facts that cannot be gainsaid ; but we 

 may ask where is the evidence of the continental condition during 

 the earlier periods. There is little in the results obtained from 

 Vanua Levu that directly supports such an hypothesis. Under 

 such circumstances one ought to have discovered in the deposits of 

 this island some evidence of this early condition, and there should 

 be found in the fauna and flora some traces of the original 

 organisms. According to Hedley there is some indication of a 

 continental condition in the molluscan fauna, and he quotes 



1 See Wichmann in Min. und Petrog. Mitth. band v. heft i. 



2 Amer.Journ. Sri. VI. 165, 1898. See also Agassiz on the Islands and 

 Coral Reefs of Fiji^ before quoted. 



3 Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1879-80, p. 358. 



4 Quart. Journ. Geolog. Soc. vol. 44, 1888. 



6 See Preface to the report of Mr. Andrews quoted on a later page. 



