THE FIJIS 335 



The rain is coming down to-day in torrents and we 

 are tied to the wharf — we have had nothing but rain 

 — rain — rain, as it does in the tropics, but I am thank- 

 ful for the good time we have had. We have been pack- 

 ing, and I have also looked over my notes and written 

 out a little, enough to make a beginning of my report. 

 We expect to go on shore the day after Xmas, while the 

 Yaralla is off at Wailangilala. We have already sent a 

 lot of stuff on shore to work, and have arranged very 

 comfortable quarters at the hotel, shutting off one end 

 of the piazza as a workshop and laboratory. We have 

 kept the kerosene launch as a boat, and might, if the 

 weather is decent, do a good deal of work on the reef 

 flats, and towing. There are quite a lot of jellyfishes 

 here. Our photographs have now all been developed and 

 are very fair ; between Max and Wood worth I ought to 

 make an excellent selection for my final report." 



Agassiz left Suva on January 13, and spent a few 

 days at Honolulu. When there he was fortunate in 

 being on the spot while Mr. McCandless, who made a 

 business of diamond drilling, was boring an artesian well. 

 Down to eighty feet nothing but recent reef coral rock 

 was encountered, but from that point to a depth of over 

 three hundred feet the limestone was of a very different 

 character. It contained but few corals, being composed 

 almost entirely of shells of mollusks. When Mr. McCand- 

 less's attention was called to this, he assured Agassiz 

 that this lower limestone was identical with those he 

 had spoken of to Dana and to him in 1885. This would 

 seem amply to confirm Agassiz's contention that they 

 do not belong to the same period as the superimposed 

 corals. 



