V SEATOVO RANGE 73 



Hawaiian order that through the erosion of ages has become a 

 dissected mountain.^ 



The Seatovo Range. — This remarkably situated mountain- 

 range, which I have named after a town at the foot of its western 

 slope, extends from the valley of the Ndama River to Solevu 

 Bay. It attains a maximum height of about 1,800 feet, and varies 

 between this elevation and 1,500 feet until in theVicinity of Solevu, 

 where it descends as a mountainous headland to the coast. Its 

 summit is narrow and ridge-shaped, and although the whole range 

 is not interrupted by gaps it has a composite origin. At its north 

 end, where it is cut off from the Seatura Range by the Nandi Gorge 

 it helps to close in the large Ndriti basin. Towards the south an 

 offshoot proceeds eastward and shuts in Solevu Bay. But, 

 although apparently all the rocks are basic, considerable variety 

 prevails, and there are many puzzling points in the geological 

 structure of this region. 



At the place where this range abuts on the Ndama valley, 

 below Ndriti, the grey scoriaceous basalt, before referred to, is 

 exposed at its foot. However, the usual blackish basaltic rocks, 

 often carrying a little olivine, form in mass the mountainous 

 southern headland that culminates in Solevu Peak (Ulu-i-matua) ; 

 and the same rocks prevail in the lower regions on the west side 

 of the range from Vuia Point to the valley of the Ndama River. 

 The southern portion will be described in the account of Solevu 

 Bay ; and I will now give the results of my journey across the 

 summit of the range about half a mile south of the Leading Peak 

 of the chart. 



The eastern slopes are steep and often precipitous, whilst on 

 the western side there is a more or less gentle descent to the lower 

 levels, suggestive of a volcanic slope ; and it is remarkable that 

 whilst the rocks exposed on the precipitous eastern side for the 

 lower two-thirds are sometimes markedly altered, on the western 

 side they are comparatively unchanged. These facts at once 

 suggest that we have here the western rim of a large crateral 

 cavity, though the topography of this district is not sufficiently 

 well shown in the chart to enable one to define its original limits. 

 This inference is also supported by the occasional scoriaceous 

 character of the rocks below referred to. 



The most frequent rocks in the upper two-thirds of the range 

 are grey porphyritic olivine-basalts, displaying opaque plagioclase 

 phenocrysts and more or less hematised olivine, the specific gravity 

 ^ Characteristics of Volcanoes, 1 890. 



