1898.] 



Funafuti, Rotuma and Fiji. 



463 



2. Limestone and Volcanic Islands. 



Chief in this class for interest is Kambara (Fig. 7), an oval- 

 shaped island, close to Wangava, lying north and south, with a 

 length of 4^ and a breadth of 3 miles. The island is bounded by 

 precipitous cliffs on all sides except to the west, where there is 

 a hill, 470 feet high, known as Delai Yaloi. Into the middle of 

 this hill the cliffs surrounding the whole island run. Towards the 

 sea its slope is very steep, up to 45°, but it is nowhere precipitous; 

 it slopes too similarly along the sides of the cliffs and towards the 

 centre of the island. The cliffs around the island average 250 feet 

 in height, but to the east there are two eminences of 320 and 

 300 feet. By Delai Yaloi the elevations are somewhat lower; and 



Delai 

 Yal 



150 



130 



Miles 



KAMBARA 



Fig. 7. 



the cliffs, north and south, are separated from the sea by a sand 

 flat, otherwise they continue evenly round the whole island. This 

 hill is thus 150 feet higher than any other point on the island 

 and about 230 feet above the cliffs near it. Its rock is a dense 

 basalt, which has apparently welled out from a fissure near the 

 base of the limestone cliffs, and gradually increased in height, so 

 as finally to overflow them and form a high hill. Near it, and 

 especially where its rock overlies, the limestone is dense and white 

 with a less tendency to form chasms, pits and caves than is usual ; 

 it is also not nearly so hard and crystalline, and preserves traces 

 of its organic origin. Elsewhere the limestone is similar to that of 

 Fulanga, but perhaps a little denser. On the surface of Delai 



37—2 



