414 Notices of Memoirs — Professor Alexander Agassiz — 



that the islands of Viwa and Asawa i lau, to the northward of the 

 Nandi Waters, are also remnants of this elevated limestone. 



" But the traces of extensive elevation are not limited to the 

 island of Viti Levu. I found that the islands on the rim of the atoll 

 of Ngele Levu consisted entirely of coralliferous limestone rock, 

 elevated to a height of over sixty feet on the larger island. The 

 northern sides of the smaller islands Taulalia and Tai ni mbeka, as 

 well as the north shore of Ngele Levu, were on the outer edge of 

 the rim of the lagoon, deep water running up to the shoi'e line. 

 We next found that at Vanua Mbalavu the northern line of islands 

 ■were parts of an elevated reef, forming vertical bluffs of coralliferous 

 limestone rock which had been raised by the central volcanic mass 

 of the main island to a height of 510 feet at Ngillangillah, at Avea 

 to 600 feet, at the Sovu Islands to 230 feet, and on the main island 

 to a height of nearly 600 feet, while on the south of the main island 

 the coralliferous limestone bluffs are very much lower, and those of 

 Malatta and of Susui reach a height of 420 to 430 feet. Going 

 farther west and south we find at Mango vertical bluffs of an. 

 elevated coralliferous limestone of over 600 feet underlaid by 

 volcanic rocks at the sea level. At Tuvutha the limestone bluff's 

 are probably nearly 800 feet high. At Naiau they are more than 

 500 feet. At Lakemba they reach a height of about 250 feet on 

 the south-west side of the island, the greater part of the rest of the 

 island being of volcanic origin. On the island of Aiwa the elevated 

 limestone is fully 200 feet thick. In the Oneata group the highest 

 point of the elevated bluffs is about 160 feet. South of the volcanic 

 island of Mothe and enclosed within the same barrier on the island 

 of Karoni, the reef is about 120 feet thick. 



" On the three islands of the Yangasa group the elevated lime- 

 stone attains a thickness of 240, 300, and 390 feet, and on Ongea, 

 the most south-easterly cluster we visited, it attains a thickness 

 of nearly 300 feet. At Fulanga the elevated limestone attains a 

 thickness of 360 feet, at Karabara it is about 200 feet thick, and at 

 Wangava it is perhaps over 300 feet ; these islands may be in part 

 volcanic. Finally, at Vatu Leile, the most westerly island we 

 examined, the elevated reef forming the island is fully 110 

 feet thick. 



" All this plainly shows that the western and southern part of 

 Viti Levu, as far south as Vatu Leile, and the whole length of the 

 windward islands of the Fiji group, from Ngele Levu on the north 

 to Ongea on the south, have been subject to an elevation of at least 

 800 feet ; and there is abundant proof that the greater part of the 

 thickness of the elevated coralliferous limestones has been eroded so 

 as to reduce it in certain localities to the level of the sea, or in others 

 to leave the bluffs and islands and islets of limestone which we have 

 traced at so many points. 



" Unfortunately there are as yet but few soundings among the 

 islands of Fiji. There is a line extending from Nanuku Passage to 

 the Kandavu Passage, and a number of soundings to the north of 

 IVailangilala and towards Thikombia, which have developed the 



