88 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap. 



growth of tall forest trees that clothes its surface, such as the Vesi 

 (Afzelia bijuga), the Ndamanu (Calophyllum burmanni), the 

 Ndakua (Dammara vitiensis), the Wathi-wathi (StercuHa sp.) &c. ; 

 and it may be that its name is connected with the launching of the 

 large canoes that were at one time constructed on its slopes. 



Ulu-i-ndali, which has a broad level summit i,ioo to 1,150 feet 

 in height, rises on the left side of the mouth of the Wainunu estuary. 

 Its relation to the surrounding region is partly shown in the rough 

 sketch given on page 83. It is separated from the basaltic table- 

 land to the north by a deep and wide valley, the bottom of which 

 is raised only a few feet above the sea ; the small stream known as 

 Ndawa-ndingo, that apparently flows through it, is merely a branch 

 of the Wainunu estuary, the tide ascending it for some distance. 

 This singular valley, like the main valley of the Wainunu, dates 

 back in great part to the period preceding the emergence of this 

 region. The steep basaltic slopes of Masusu, strewn with fragments 

 of large columns, bound it on the north. On its south side are the 

 lower slopes of Ulu-i-ndali which are composed of volcanic tuffs. 



A long spur descends to the south from Ulu-i-ndali to form 

 the rocky promontory of Vatu Vono or " Stone turtle," so-named 

 from the fanciful resemblance of the large rounded blocks of basalt 

 on the shore to the backs of turtles. To the south-east extend the 

 low tuff-formed Ravi-ravi plains which are but slightly elevated 

 above the sea. The Ulu-i-ndali range is apparently connected by 

 a " col " with a range of similar height to the eastward, the highest 

 peak of which is about 3 miles distant. 



A more or less coarse doleritic grey olivine-basalt forms the mass 

 of this hill and is chiefly exposed in its upper portion. Around its 

 slopes, extending from the coast usually half way up the hill, are 

 blackish-brown olivine-basalts ; they differ amongst other points 

 from the grey basalts — which are practically holocrystalline, in 

 their greater amount of interstitial glass, to which, doubtless, is due 

 their dark colour. These dark basalts also occur scantily on the 

 summit ; but from their greater prevalence on the lower slopes and 

 from some other of their characters, it may be inferred that they 

 are in the main formed at the surface. Outside all, on the north 

 and south sides of the hill, are exposed coarse tuffs composed of 

 fragments of palagonitised vacuolar basic glass and containing 

 much secondary zeolitic and calcitic materials. They are purely of 

 ■eruptive origin, and although containing no organic remains were 

 doubtless, as in the case of the precisely similar tuffs of the 

 neighbouring district of Nandua, deposited under the sea. A 



