166 



when exposed to the air. It is smooth and very 

 slippery when wet or polished, and is locally known 

 as Soap-stone. In other places it is hard, brittle, 

 and shattered to the size of road macadam, often rough 

 from coralline and other sands, pieces of shells, &c, 

 being imbedded in it. These may be noticed on des- 

 cending the cliffs from the native village of Tamavua 

 to the river, and again at the native town of Kaluba, 

 on the river of the same name, between Suva and 

 the Rewa. At Tamavua and Kaluba, the cliffs are 

 about 300 feet in height. At the last, the river has 

 cut down through this soft rock, and now flows 

 over a bed of hard agglomerate. There are many 

 large caves on the limestone cliffs in the interior of 

 Viti Levu. When coarse-grained, it splits readily into 

 small flags, which the natives, in some localities (in- 

 terior of Viti Levu), use for paving. 



The agglomerate, or breccia, is supposed to be of 

 volcanic origin. It is composed of angular stone, black 

 sand, voleanic ashes, &c. It is very compact, and would 

 make a good building stone, but would be difficult 

 to work. It is a light brown or grayish colour. Where 

 exposed, the edges of the stones in it are rounded off, 

 but they arc held most firmly by the binding material, 

 and will break when struck, rather than come out. 

 This binding material is believed to consist mainly of 

 ox id'' of iron and lime. The rock is found in layers, 

 whieli vary in thickness and degrees of fineness. But 

 ii has no cleavages between the layers. The layers 

 diminish down to a thread-like fineness, and disappear 

 or run into one another. Insomeofthe layers the rock 

 i- as Jin«';i^ some of the rougher building sandstones; in 

 others it ^ composed of angular stones of various 

 sizes, up io thai of a cubic foot. Good samples of 



