viii PREFACE 



occasional " boom " from the bottom of the great crater, at the 

 edge of which we were camped, I remarked to my friend that I was 

 thinking of spending some months in Samoa. To this he good- 

 humouredly replied that I might leave Samoa to his countrymen 

 and describe one of the large islands of Fiji. International rivalry 

 over that group of islands was then rather keen. However, Dr. 

 K. went to Samoa, and I have now completed this volume on the 

 geology of Vanua Levu, Fiji. 



It will not be necessary to lay stress here on the difficulties and 

 hardships connected with the exploration of little known tropical 

 regions. Many will be familiar with all that these imply, where 

 the rainfall ranges from ioo to 250 inches, where the forests are 

 dense, where tracks are few and swollen rivers are numerous, and 

 where the torrent's bed presents often the only road. 



The only extensive geological collections made in Fiji previous 

 to my visit were those of Kleinschmidt in 1876-78, which together 

 with a small collection previously made by Dr. Graffe were 

 examined by Dr. A. Wichmann. These rocks were obtained from 

 Viti Levu, Kandavu, Ovalau, etc., but not from Vanua Levu. Dr. 

 Wichmann's paper of 1882, descriptive of these collections, presents 

 us with the results of one of the earliest studies by modern methods 

 of research of the volcanic rocks of the Pacific Islands. It is to 

 this investigator that we are indebted for the establishment of the 

 occurrence of plutonic rocks, such as granites, gabbros, diorites, in 

 Viti Levu. 



Although, as far as I can ascertain, few, if any, rocks have been 

 specially described from Vanua Levu, this island was visited by 

 Dana in 1840 when attached to the United States Exploring 

 Expedition under Wilkes. His observations on its geology were 

 published in his volume on the geology of the expedition. 

 Although not extensive they are valuable from their reference to 

 his discovery of trachytic and rhyolitic rocks as well as acid 

 pumice-tuffs in the island. It is singular that his observations 

 have apparently been overlooked by all his successors. Wichmann 

 with this discovery unknown to him remarked on the seeming 

 absence of quartz-bearing recent eruptive rocks from the South 

 Seas. 



