MAKATEA. 



61 



lowest part of the sink along the path leading across the island from west 

 to east is probably from 30 to 50 feet lower than the rim, the deepest part 

 being nearest the eastern face. The path winds its way between huge 

 masses of limestone (Pis. 31, 32), forming needles and spires, and on each 

 side are found deep crevasses or pot-holes or small sinks. Some of the 

 pinnacles are fully 20 feet high (PI. 32, fig. 1), and some of the narrow 

 crevasses equal them in depth. 



The surface of the exposed rock is everywhere pitted and honeycombed 

 and weathered, much as we found it at Ngele Levu and other points in Fiji. 

 The intervening spaces are 

 covered with thick vege- 

 tation. The same sort of 

 scenery runs across the 

 island from west to east, 

 patches of vegetation al- 

 ternating with spires and 

 pinnacles, or huge masses 

 forming indistinct cyclo- 

 pean walls, alternating 

 with deep crevasses, small 

 caverns, pot-holes, or di- 

 minutive caverns running 

 in all directions. On strik- 

 ing the summit of the 

 cliffs of the eastern face of Makatea, the path leading down the slope to the 

 village runs between walls from 30 to 40 feet high, and on each side the 

 cliffs are honej'combed with caverns and crevasses even to a greater 

 extent than on the west face. 



Near the foot of the cliffs on the east side, at the base of the second 

 terrace, a large cavern is found, which is said to run towards the northern 

 point and come out on the shore cliffs at a distance of more than a mile and 

 a half. Other caverns honeycomb the eastern part of the island, as can be 

 seen from the sea from the number of those which crop out on the cliffs of 

 the eastern face of the island. On the east face, in the bight where the 



Entrance to Cavern, East Face of Makatea. 



