312 SAMOAN ISLANDS. 
Ill. ISLAND OF UPOLU. 
1. GENERAL FEATURES. 
Upolu is a narrow strip of land, lying nearly in an east-by-south and 
west-by-north direction. It is a mountain ridge, varying from one to 
three thousand feet in height. The slopes are of very different cha- 
racter in various parts, and we thus distinguish a Western, Middle, 
and Eastern district. In the middle portion, extending from Laulti, on 
the north side, to Tiavea, a distance of fifteen miles, the mountains 
have the bold and angular features of the older basaltic islands. Deep 
valleys cut through their sides; or they fall in abrupt precipices, 
through many hundred feet of their height. Numerous thready cas- 
cades pour down the steep surface in long white lines. 
These features are strikingly seen around Fangaloa Bay. ‘The bay 
is a deep indentation, running nearly three miles into the island, 
between lofty spurs from the mountains. Amid the dense foliage 
that covers the inaccessible heights on either side, especially on the 
eastern, there are several of these high waterfalls. On the west of 
the bay stands the lofty, pointed summit of Mount Fao, supposed to 
be the highest on the island : its altitude is about 3200 feet. The only 
rival is part of the main ridge back of Solo-solo. On the opposite side 
of Fangaloa, stands with erect front and towering summit, a less 
lofty but more picturesque peak, called Malatta. At the head of the 
bay, the ridge runs up into a sharp conical eminence, of very regular 
shape, called Mount Vaaolata. 
The coast of this portion of the island, on the north side, is indented 
with other large bays, a mile in depth. Tiavea and Eoafatu are the 
principal of them. On the top of the high mountain that separates 
Eoafatu from Fangaloa, there is a small lake. 
These broken features characterize the whole of the Middle district. 
Throughout its extent, the mountain declivities, with few exceptions, 
rise abruptly from the sea, or there is but a narrow strip of land on 
the shores; and from Falifa to Tiavea the abruptness below the sur- 
face of the sea is shown by the absence of the coral reef. Only narrow 
fringing ledges border the bays. 
At Falifa there is a broad plain, which rises gently from the coast, 
and extends about six miles back. It is from five to six miles long, 
