1898.] Funafuti, Rotuma and Fiji. 439 



beach sand ; the angle of their slope for 500 yards inland is rarely 

 more than 3° or 4°. The coast is fairly even with a complete 

 absence of the " long points and deep fiord-like bays," which, 

 according to Dana, would on a volcanic island give indubitable 

 evidence of subsidence. Two miles from the west end the island 

 narrows down to an isthmus about 100 yards broad, completely 

 covered with sand. The rock to the east, a recent lava, slopes 

 gradually down to the beach, but to the west the isthmus is 

 bounded by the perpendicular cliffs of two basaltic hills, Kugoi 

 and Kiliga ; these are undermined considerably at their bases 

 owing to wave action at the present tide level, proving that the 

 isthmus at one time did not exist. There is also a deep pool, 

 300 yards across, with 4 — 6 fathoms of water and precipitous 

 Avails, within the reef to the north, directly in the line joining the 

 deepest passages through the reefs to the north and south of the 

 island in this situation. I have no doubt that there was once a 

 deep channel across here, which has closed up, as there could have 

 been no current to keep it open. 



The only other rock found besides the recent lava and basalt 

 is a volcanic ash, which forms the islands on the reef and three 

 hills at the west end, of which Sororoa alone abuts on the sea. 

 Where the basalt of Kiliga and the ash of Sororoa and the reef 

 islands face the sea, they end nearly perpendicularly, the cliffs of 

 Sororoa being over 700 feet high. On the island I failed to find 

 any marine deposit, or any evidence of any change of level, so 

 that, to explain the manifold conditions of its reef, recourse to 

 such would, I believe, be irrelevant. I consider too that the 

 extensive beach sand-flats could only have been formed in a 

 stationary period. Every variety of fringing reef is found, and I 

 shall endeavour to indicate by a brief sketch of the characteristics 

 of the reef in different situations the method of formation of a 

 fringing reef and the first stages in the change from such to a 

 barrier condition. 



About three miles to the west of Rotuma lie three islands 

 Hoflewa, Hatana and Uea in a line from south-west to north- 

 east ; of these Hoflewa and Hatana are of recent lava while Uea, 

 which is 900 feet high and surrounded by cliffs, is formed of 

 ash-rock. Between Uea and Hatana is a shoal Hofhaveanlolo, 

 awash at low tide ; its top is flat and completely covered with 

 incrusting nullipores with no growing corals. The short distance 

 in which the breakers rise, together with the deep-coloured water 

 around, show that its walls are almost precipitous, and indeed with 

 a 50-fathom line I could obtain no soundings about 50 yards from 

 its edge. 



Hoflewa is a precipitous horse-shoe shaped rock open to the 

 west-south-west with a cleft, extending from the summit to the 



