110 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
VITI LEVU REEFS. 
Plates 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 204, Figs. 9-12, and Plates 24-45. 
The great barrier and fringing reef which follows the southern and 
part of the eastern coasts of Viti Levu may be said to begin off the north- 
eastern extremity of the island of Ovalau (Plates 3, 7). Off that island 
a spur of the barrier reef extends in a northerly direction, terminating in 
deep water (Plate 3). From that point to off Tova Peak there is no 
barrier reef, the bottom being generally muddy, formed from the decom- 
position of the islets composed of soapstone, which are scattered in great 
number between Ovalau Island and the island of Viti Levu. Similar 
islands and islets abound along the shore of Viti Levu, and between it 
and the outer reef south of Moturiki towards Mbau and the Tomberua 
Passage (Plate 7). 
The islands of Viwa (Plate 36) and Mbau are both composed of 
stratified volcanic mud resting upon harder volcanic rocks, and the whole 
shore line of the adjoining part of Viti Levu is made up of the same ma- 
terial, judging by what we could see of the shore bluffs as we steamed 
FRINGING REEF HARBOR, OFF KORO LEVU. 
from the Moturiki Channel to Mbau. The soft rocks of the shores of that 
part of Viti Levu are readily disintegrated, and their erosion and denu- 
dation have supplied the material for the extensive mud flats (Plate 35) 
lying in the area just mentioned (Plate 7), leaving endless patches and 
small flats more or less covered with patches of growing corals. These 
softer rocks rest upon harder volcanic rocks, the extension of the rocks 
which attain a considerable height in Moturiki and a still greater one in 
the peaks of Ovalau." 
1 Both Ovalau and Moturiki are surrounded by a fringing reef. 
