AGASSIZ: FIJI ISLANDS AND CORAL REEFS. 99 
surrounded by a fringing reef which ends beyond the northern point of 
the island along the base of the vertical cliffs between it and Tokalau 
village (Plate 78), and becomes the merest thread to the south of it 
for a short distance. Along the rest of the west face there is a narrow 
incipient lagoon studded with coral patches, with from one to two 
fathoms of depth in places between the outer reef and the shore. 
Gardiner? describes the interior plateau of Kambara as being about 
100 feet above the level of the sea, and that ‘on the plateau itself are 
many small hills, rising nearly to the level of the rim, with very steep 
walls, and some springing almost like buttresses from the rim itself,” 
and that on this plateau there are a number of deep holes in which salt 
water is found and tidal influences are felt. This description corresponds 
with what has been observed in the zeolian hill basins of the Bahamas 
and Bermudas, in which atmospheric agencies are at work to form the 
incipient sounds, and finally the great sounds or lagoons of the islands 
of these groups. 
Gardiner? reports that the hills of Thikombia i ra are certainly of 
limestone, and at a distance appear distinctly terraced. 
SUNDRY ATOLLS. 
Pitman Reef. 
Plate 18. 
Pitman Reef is an oval atoll about a mile in greatest length. We 
passed within a cable’s length on the west side, and could see the outer 
edge of the reef flat uncovered at points, and patches of corals growing 
upon it. The reef flat seems to be 300 to 350 yards in width. It is 
widest at the northern extremity. The lagoon is marked on the chart 
as being eighteen fathoms deep. 
Motua Levu and Motua lai lai. 
Plate 18. 
Motua Levu and Motua lai lai are two atolls to the eastward of Lau- 
thala reef. The former is somewhat rectangular, about two miles in 
length, and encloses a lagoon with a greatest depth of twenty-five 
fathoms. On the northwest edge boats can cross into the lagoon. The 
latter is nearly circular, a mile in diameter, enclosing a small lagoon. 
1 Loe. cit., p. 464. 2 Loc. cit., p. 462. 
