



Produced by Greg Bergquist, Sonya Schermann and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)






                          Transcriber's Notes

When italics were used in the original book, the corresponding text has
been surrounded by _underscores_. Subscripted characters have been
preceded by _ and surrounded by {}. In some cases, ditto marks have been
replaced by the text they represent. Some corrections have been made to
the printed text. These are listed in a second transcriber’s note at the
end of the text.




                  OBSERVATIONS OF A NATURALIST IN THE

                     PACIFIC BETWEEN 1896 AND 1899

[Illustration: [Image: Publisher]

[Illustration: NA RARO (2,420 feet) from the south-west, a peak of acid
andesite.]

[Illustration: NDRANDRAMEA (1,800 feet) from the south-east, a peak of
acid andesite rising about a thousand feet from its base.]

                                                        [_Frontispiece._




                            OBSERVATIONS OF
                            A NATURALIST IN
                          THE PACIFIC BETWEEN
                             1896 AND 1899




                                   BY
                      H. B. GUPPY, M.B., F.R.S.E.




                                VOLUME I

                           _VANUA LEVU, FIJI_
   _A description of its leading Physical and Geological characters_




                                 London
                       MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

                    NEW YORK; THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
                                  1903

                         _All rights reserved_




                    RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED.
                      BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND
                            BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.




                               Dedication

                          TO THE FIJIAN PEOPLE




                                PREFACE


DURING a sojourn in the Pacific, which covered a period of rather over a
year in Hawaii (1896-97), and of two years and three months in Fiji
(1897-99), my attention was mainly confined to the study of
plant-distribution and to the examination of the geological structure of
Vanua Levu.

With Hillebrand’s “Flora of Hawaii” always in my hands I roamed over the
large island of Hawaii, ascending the three principal mountains of Mauna
Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai, and in the case of my second ascent of
Mauna Loa spending twenty-three days alone on its summit. Similarly in
Fiji, Seemann’s “Flora Vitiensis” was my counsellor and guide in the
matter of plants.

In Hawaii I was in a land of active sub-aerial volcanoes, and I paid my
devotions at all the altars of “Pele,” their presiding deity. In Fiji I
trod upon the surface of submarine volcanoes that emerged ages since
from the ocean and still retain their coverings of sea-deposits. Both in
Hawaii and Fiji I lived much among the people; and though my chief
interest lay in the comparison of these two types of volcanic islands, I
could not but be drawn to the kindly natives whose hospitality I so long
enjoyed.

Destiny led me to Vanua Levu in the following fashion. With the relief
party to take me down from Mauna Loa there arrived a well-known German
naturalist who, like myself, had been interested in coral-reef
investigations. We discussed this warm topic at an elevation of nearly
14,000 feet above the sea, with the thermometer at 20° F. As we sipped
our hot coffee and listened to the occasional “boom” from the bottom of
the great crater, at the edge of which we were camped, I remarked to my
friend that I was thinking of spending some months in Samoa. To this he
good-humouredly replied that I might leave Samoa to his countrymen and
describe one of the large islands of Fiji. International rivalry over
that group of islands was then rather keen. However, Dr. K. went to
Samoa, and I have now completed this volume on the geology of Vanua
Levu, Fiji.

It will not be necessary to lay stress here on the difficulties and
hardships connected with the exploration of little known tropical
regions. Many will be familiar with all that these imply, where the
rainfall ranges from 100 to 250 inches, where the forests are dense,
where tracks are few and swollen rivers are numerous, and where the
torrent’s bed presents often the only road.

The only extensive geological collections made in Fiji previous to my
visit were those of Kleinschmidt in 1876-78, which together with a small
collection previously made by Dr. Gräffe were examined by Dr. A.
Wichmann. These rocks were obtained from Viti Levu, Kandavu, Ovalau,
etc., but not from Vanua Levu. Dr. Wichmann’s paper of 1882, descriptive
of these collections, presents us with the results of one of the
earliest studies by modern methods of research of the volcanic rocks of
the Pacific Islands. It is to this investigator that we are indebted for
the establishment of the occurrence of plutonic rocks, such as granites,
gabbros, diorites, in Viti Levu.

Although, as far as I can ascertain, few, if any, rocks have been
specially described from Vanua Levu, this island was visited by Dana in
1840 when attached to the United States Exploring Expedition under
Wilkes. His observations on its geology were published in his volume on
the geology of the expedition. Although not extensive they are valuable
from their reference to his discovery of trachytic and rhyolitic rocks
as well as acid pumice-tuffs in the island. It is singular that his
observations have apparently been overlooked by all his successors.
Wichmann with this discovery unknown to him remarked on the seeming
absence of quartz-bearing