332 SAMOAN ISLANDS. 
racter of the rocks, and the general topographical features of the 
central district, remind us of Tahiti and Kauai, and, as far as the facts 
go, they favour our referring the whole to the same distant era. 
Change of Level—Some partial subsidences have already been 
alluded to. I refer to the bluff mountain side, back of the Falifa 
plains, and the long wall, three to six hundred feet high, fronting the 
sea on the southeast side of the island. The former appears as if all 
the northern declivity of the mountain, except a small portion at top, 
had been removed by an extensive subsidence. The wall is five or 
six miles long, and its height about a thousand feet. The other is a 
still more remarkable example of subsidence. ‘The wall is not less 
than seven miles long, and cuts off the greater part of the northeastern 
declivities of Fanganga. The usual slope of five or six degrees com- 
mences just below the upper hundred feet to stretch away to the 
southward and westward; but it is suddenly broken off by the high 
precipice. (Figure 2, page 325.) ‘There is a narrow plain at foot 
bordering the sea, which is the site of several native villages. 
We have been unable to discover any proofs of a recent rise of the 
island. The black ledges of basaltic rock along the shores are per- 
fectly clean from coral, to the water’s edge. ‘The layers of beach 
limestone on the shores sometimes extend a foot above high water 
mark ; but this is not beyond their ordinary height. The layers have 
the usual character, and incline outward at an angle of seven or eight 
degrees (p. 44). The reefs of Apia lie nearly at the level of low tide ; 
there is not the slightest reason to suppose that a rise is in progress, 
or that any has taken place since the coral reef first fringed these 
shores. If there has been any change it is one of subsidence; but 
though we have some reason for suspicion, we cannot decidedly 
prove it.. The fact that the surface slopes gradually beneath the 
sea, instead of being bordered by a cliff, is evidence of some weight in 
favour of a subsidence of a hundred feet or more; for on Hawaii, 
wherever recent lava streams have entered the sea, there is usually a 
cliff of one or two hundred feet, and never a slope of solid lava con- 
{inuing on uninterrupted beneath the water. 
