310 BULLETIN 1Q3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



lie includes Mbengha and Moala of the Fiji group. 1 Subsequently 

 Davis, in several of his papers, cited and others have similarly inter- 

 preted the estuarine character of the lower ends of the valleys. 



Were the platforms on which the Fijian reefs stand, or which they 

 margin, formed by infilling behind barriers or are the reefs merely 

 superposed on antecedent platforms? In 1914 I published the 

 following statement: 



Having presented criteria for recognizing the relations of continental and large 

 insular platforms supporting barrier reefs to the presence of the reefs, islands such as 

 those in the Society and Fiji groups may be considered. * * * A study of the 

 charts of barrier reef islands, as Viti Levu, Fijis, and Tahiti, Society Islands, shows 

 that the platforms are independent of the presence of reefs, and therefore the rela- 

 tions in these islands are similar to those indicated for barriers off continental shores, 

 for here the reefs are also superimposed on platforms antedating their presence. 



Plate 7 of Agassiz's work on the Fiji Islands, already cited, shows 

 the continuity of the platform northward and westward from Ovalau 

 without any margining barrier reef. In my opinion these relations 

 clearly show that the reef, where it is present, is merely superposed 

 on an antecedent platform, and that the suggestion of Davis, that 

 tho. entire platform is due to infilling behind a reef which in places 

 has ceased to grow, is farfetched. 



Recently E. C. Andrews and W. G. Foye have published impor- 

 tant papers on the Fijis. Andrews in his paper says: 



The Viti Levu salt water arms, therefore, with their contained deltas, suggest the 

 submergence of the Viti Levu coastal lowland in recent time, with the consequent 

 drowning of the lower portions of the river courses. 



The island is girt with a Great Barrier Reef, several hundreds of miles in length, 

 broken here and there by passages. The present Great Barrier Reef, which rises to 

 the level of the sea, has thus, in all probability, been built up by coral-reef organisms 

 upon the submerged lowlands of Viti Levu. 2 



Andrews similarly interprets the conditions of development of the 

 barrier reef off Vanua Levu. The interpretations advanced by 

 Andrews essentially accords with mine; that is, the reefs are super- 

 posed on a depressed platform that was previous to its submergence 

 a coastal lowland. 



Foye 3 makes the following statement regarding Viti Levu : 



In general the present coral reefs are developing on platforms which originated 

 during the deposition of the coastal series. 4 



Regarding Vanua Levu he says: 



I visited only the eastern and central portions of Vanua Levu. The modern fringing 

 reefs are here developing either along the shore bine of recently submerged volcanic 

 rocks or on coastal flats formed of the fine ash swept from the elevated hills of sub- 



1 Daly, R. A ., Pleistocene glaciation and the coral reel problem, Amer. Journ. Sci., ser. 4, vol. 30, p. 306, 

 November, 1910. 



2 Andrews, E. C, Relations of coral reefs to crust movements in the Fiji Islands, Amer. Journ. Sci., 

 ser. 4, vol. 41, p. 138, 1916. 



3 Foye, W. G., The geology of the Fiji Islands, Acad. Nat. Sci. Proc, vol. 3, pp. 305-310, April, 1917. 



4 Idem. p. 303. 



