102 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap. 



height from the base is also less, ranging between 400 and 900 feet. 

 They rise, as the illustration shows, in the midst of a densely- 

 wooded broken country. 



Ndrandramea, which is 1,800 feet above the sea, has an indi- 

 vidual height of about 900 feet. Fijians in distant parts of the 

 island are familiar with the name of this remarkable peak. It has 

 a legendary fame ; and like Wawa Levu in the old time it served 

 as a mountain stronghold in times of war. The remains of a stone- 

 wall of a " koro-ni-valu " or " town of war," known as Mata-mei- 

 ndami-ndami, occur on its side, 300 or 350 feet below its summit ; 

 whilst among the wild lemon trees that cover the slopes below large 

 ovoid sling-stones 4 or 5 inches in length may still be found. 

 Viewed from the south-east, as shown in the frontispiece, Ndran- 

 dramea has the shape of a woman's breast ; and evidently the 

 origin of its name is connected with this resemblance. But seen 

 from the west and south-west, as in the other general view of the 

 district (page 98), it has a broadly truncated conical outline, its 

 form being indeed somewhat elongated or elliptical. 



This hill presents precipitous slopes, and on the south side it 

 shows bare rocky faces. As seen in the illustration, it might 

 appear inaccessible ; but the ascent is not difificult on the west side. 

 It is composed in mass of an acid andesite allied to the dacites of 

 Ngaingai and Wawa Levu, but differing in the hemicrystalline 

 character of the groundmass (except at the base), in the porphyritic 

 development of rhombic pyroxene, and in the absence of porphyritic 

 quartz. As remarked on page 301, the rock becomes more basic as 

 one descends the hill. At the top its specific weight is 2'44, about 

 300 feet below it is 2-58, at 700 feet from the top it is 2-68, and at 

 the base of the hill where it is holocrystalline and has a dioritic 

 appearance it is 271. That it possesses a rudely columnar 

 structure is shown by the occurrence here and there on the slopes 

 and at the base of the hill of portions of prostrate columns, 3 to 4 

 feet broad and sometimes 20 to 25 feet long, which have a rounded 

 surface and look like fossil tree-trunks. Masses of agglomerate of 

 the same andesitic rocks lie about in places on the lower slopes, the 

 included blocks, which are a few inches across, being sometimes 

 rounded. 



The neighbouring hills lying south and west of Ndrandramea 

 are, as far as my observations show, of the same acid type of 

 andesite. It is connected with those nearest by a saddle, 1,100 

 feet above the sea, where the same holocrystalline form of the rock 

 occurs, having a specific gravity of 27 and being often rudely 



