GEOLOGY: W. G. FOYE 
305 
Starting with 35 grams of ethyl aminoacetate we recovered practically 
one-half of the aminoacid ester in the form of its hydrochloride, and ob- 
tained 19 grams of the isothiocyanacetate. This reaction is being investi- 
gated further and will be applied for the preparation of other new types 
of polyketide mustard oils. If this method of synthesis finds as wide an 
application as we anticipate, it will enable us to obtain several isothio- 
cyanates of new types, which should be of great biochemical interest. 
ijohnson and Hemingway, /. Amer. Chem. Soc, Easton, Pa., 38, 1916 (1550). 
2 Fischer, E., Berlin, Ber. D. Chem. Ges., 34, 1901 (441). 
3Andreasch, Wien, Monatshefte Chem., 27, 1906 (1211). 
THE GEOLOGY OF THE FIJI ISLANDS 
By Wilbur G. Foye 
DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY. MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE. MIDDLEBURY. VERMONT 
Communicated by W. M. Davis, February 28. 1917 
The period between July, 1915 and March, 1916 I spent as a Sheldon 
Travelling Fellow of Harvard University, in a study of the geology of 
the Fiji Islands. Special attention was given to the structure and rela- 
tions of the elevated limestones. Of the larger islands, Viti Levu, Vanua 
Levu, Taviuni, Kandavu, Mbengha, and Ovalau were visited. Three 
islands of the Yasawa group and eighteen of the Lau group were Hke- 
wise studied. The following paper records the principal facts concern- 
ing the geology of the major divisions of the group. 
1. Viti Levu. — ^Viti Levu is the southern of the two larger islands of 
Fiji. It is 94 miles long from east to west and 55 miles broad. The 
southeastern side of the island and a large portion of the eastern and 
northeastern sides are low delta flats overgrown with mangrove bushes. 
The flats merge into a young, narrow coastal plain which extends 5 to 
10 miles inland, where it meets an uplifted coastal plain of soft marls, 
now carved into mature hills, 70 to 100 feet in height. The older plain 
slopes gradually upward for 5 or 6 miles from its edge, until it rests un- 
conformably on the interior, volcanic hills at heights of 600 to 700 feet. 
Elsewhere the volcanic hills approach the shore and form the coast- 
line for the greater part of the circumference of the island. 
The whole interior of the island is characterized by maturely dis- 
sected insequent hills, though quite extensive flats are sometimes found 
near the rivers. The rocks forming the interior hills are frequently 
sandstones and marls in contrast to the volcanic rocks of the coast. 
The western and northern shores of the island are very irregular. 
Drowned valleys abound and many are so filled with delta deposits that 
