146 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



part of the principal island, Yavau, is high and bold, with precipitous 

 shores, but it slopes away to the southward where it breaks up into 

 an intricate maze of headlands and islands, gradually decreasing in 

 size and height until they are lost beneath the sea as breaking reefs 

 on the southern edge of the plateau. This archipelago of islets is 

 evidentl}^ the eroded remnant of a single high coral island, of which 

 Vavau is the largest fragment, which formerly covered the entire 

 plateau and Avas, perhaps, connected with the Hapai Group. 



The Albatross anchored at Neiafu, Vavau, on the morning of 

 December 4 and left in the afternoon of the following day. The har- 

 bor is Avell protected, but the water is rather deep. It is approached 

 through a fine fiord with precipitous coralliferous limestone walls, 

 from which a number of flat-topped rocks and islets have been cut off 

 by the erosive action of the sea. At Neiafu the rocky walls of the 

 fiord are interrupted and a broad slope extending into the interior 

 gives room for the village and an ample cultivated acreage behind it. 

 Several trading stations are situated along the cove, one on the star- 

 board side in entering being in a situation of almost idyllic beauty. 



The island is generally well wooded and produces a variety of 

 fruits and vegetables. The natives are of the Maori race, like those 

 of Hawaii, Samoa, and the islands which the Albatross visited to the 

 eastward. Here, as in the other islands of the group, tapa, the bark 

 cloth of the South Seas, is produced in considerable quantities, and the 

 rap rap of the tapa club is Ijeard everywhere and all daj'' long. A few 

 corals were collected at Neiafu, but the other collections were poor. 



From Vavau the vessel ran to the Fiji Islands, making a short stop 

 at Kambara in the Lau Group, and then proceeding to Suva, where 

 nine days were spent in refitting and coaling. A number of cases of 

 specimens were packed up and shipped from this port, previous ship- 

 ments having been made from Papeete. 



Suva is the seat of the British Government in the Fiji islands, and 

 the expedition Avas kindly received by the colonial officials, who, 

 among other courtesies, provided an excellent guide and carriers for 

 a party which visited the interior. The town has a population of less 

 than 2,000, of whom a large proportion are whites. The harbor is 

 good, protected from the prevailing easterly winds by a high point 

 and from the swell of the open sea b}^ a coral reef traversed by a deep 

 pass which forms the entrance. The anchorage is good, and vessels 

 of considei'able draft can lie alongside the wharf. Extensive collec- 

 tions having been made by Mr. Agassiz on a former expedition to the 

 Fijis, but little collecting was done along the coast, and three mem- 

 bers of the part}" made an excursion into the interior of Viti Levu, the 

 principal island of the archipelago. 



This island is the largest and most populous visited by the Albatross. 

 Its interior is mountainous, but the peaks are neither so high nor steep 

 as those of Tahiti, about 4,000 feet being the greatest altitude, and 

 the valleys are broader. The principal river, the Rewa, entering the 



