CHAPTER IV 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL AND GENERAL PHYSICAL 

 FEATURES OF VANUA LEVU. 



In this chapter the detailed description of the island is 

 commenced, beginning with the western extremity and proceeding 

 eastward. Most of the petrological details are dealt with under 

 their respective sections ; but it has been found necessary also to 

 frequently refer to them in this connection. 



The Naivaka Peninsula. — This mountainous peninsula 

 forms the conspicuous feature of the western extremity of Vanua 

 Levu. Amongst all the mountains of the island its appearance 

 from a distance gave most promise of displaying the products of 

 recent volcanic eruptions ; but as shown below it affords evidence 

 of an antiquity nearly as great as that of the rest of the island, 

 although there are reasons for believing that its eruptions took 

 place during the last stage of the emergence. 



Naivaka is connected with the adjacent relatively little elevated 

 part of the main island by a low and narrow neck a little less 

 than a mile in breadth. In its highest part, where it is only 

 raised between 20 and 30 feet above the sea, this isthmus is formed 

 of the basic volcanic rocks of the district ; but about three fourths 

 of its width are occupied by mangrove-swamps which are especially 

 extensive on the south side. 



Viewed from some miles to the eastward the mountain has a 

 regular conical outline ; but from the south, when seen from Ruku- 

 ruku Bay, it has an elongated and a much more irregular profile, 

 descending rapidly on the east side, but displaying a gradual and 

 a fairly regular slope of about 10 degrees on the west side. The 

 upper part of the mountain is in the form of a curve with the 

 concavity facing south, the crest being more or less broken up into 

 five or six peaks showing often precipitous and at times vertical 



