224 B. G CORNEY, T. W. E. DAVID, AND F. B. GUTHRIE. 



Our thanks are specially due to Mr. T. Cater (contractor for 

 the sinking of the shafts) for his valuable co-operation in the work. 

 We also desire to express our obligations to Professor J. D. 

 Everett, P.R.S., for the use of the thermometers, and to Mr. W. S. 

 Dun for the detailed section of the shaft and determination of 

 the fossils. 



Note on the EDIBLE EARTH from FIJI. 



By the Hon. B. G. Corney, m.d., Professor David, b.a., f.g.s., 

 and F. B. Guthrie, f.c.s. 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, December 6, 1899. ,] 



The sample of edible earth, which forms the subject of this note 

 was collected by one of us (Dr. Corney), by whom it was presented 

 to Professor T. P. Anderson Stuart, who in turn presented it to 

 the Geological Department of the University of Sydney. 



The earth occurs in several localities in the Fiji Islands. The 

 specimen examined was collected near the northern coast of the 

 large island called Vanua Levu, where the rocks are igneous. The 

 natives, that is the women, eat small portions of it at times, and 

 assert that it has some salutary influence over the later stages of 

 pregnancy. It seems not unlikely that it may relieve some of the 

 disagreeable or painful sensations incidental to that condition; 

 and the practice may have arisen in consequence. The natives 

 have no specific name for this earth, calling it merely Qele kana, 

 which means ' edible earth.' 



At Tavuki, on the north side of the island of Kadavu, it is met 

 with in the solid, and the people cut it into brick-shaped blocks 

 with which they face up the raised foundation mounds upon which 

 their dwellings are constructed. The women there also eat it in 

 small quantities. 



